Fluxbuntu

[krt]

Background:

I switched to Linux October last year when Ubuntu Gutsy came out. 2 weeks after, I became Windows-free, using VMWare to create a virtual Windows for the rare occasion when something Windows only needed to be done. I don't play games much, if at all now a days, so that makes it easier for me I guess.

Anyway, I have found Ubuntu to be a pain at times and almost felt I was going to do the same as that user clpo13 did, give up. I've had to reinstall Ubuntu due to the state things got in, re-learn things, get basic things like graphics, sound, Flash and multimedia working but I think I've settled in now.

Still, I find things to be annoyed about and the only condolence is that Windows sucks more. Not so much Ubuntu, but the desktop environments (gnome, kde, xfce etc.) are incoherent pieces of crap and waiting for KDE4.0 expecting something reasonably stable was a let down too far.

Solution:

Fluxbuntu seems to be the perfect solution. It is basically a "no crap" distribution, no lag, no clutter, clean, productive and very extensible. Basically, it is exactly what I was looking for: a simple base setup that does basic tasks with a clean interface that I can expand as I need to. (Note: simple is not the same as barebone, there are many distros I would refer to as barebone but these require a lot of patience, technical knowledge etc.).

Fluxbuntu is mostly GUI controlled, so it is reasonably beginner friendly, and is based on Ubuntu/Debian so it inherits their stability and reliability. It also has the large and up to date repository of Ubuntu on hand and most issues can be supported through the ubuntu forums. I suppose the lack of basic functionality such as viewing PDFs may be a drawback but that highlights the usefulness of the package manager and the extensibility of the distro.

Of course, Xubuntu is also okay, and is an "official" Ubuntu distro and runs on the lightweight XFCE, however, I had several problems with it. Maybe because I incorrectly set it up when trying to have Gnome, KDE and XFCE side by side. It also felt too much like Gnome and I had problems customising the look.

Note: I am a little biased towards Debian based distributions, particularly Ubuntu as I am accustomed to it and it is the only distribution for which my ISP has repositories for (which means unmetered use... yes, we have download limits here per month in Australia)

[kenoodo]

Thanks for the post. I think about Linux a lot, but still have not made the decision to switch Windows to Linux. I am so used to Windows. And it makes it so hard to start an other OS.

I get that the Fluxbuntu can be used as a live-CD so that I could try before installing to my computer. That's great. Hope it supports Chinese well.

[ruyss]

I installed Ubuntu a couple of months ago and it only lasted on my hard drive for a few days. I was totally disappointed with it.

First of all some parts of the lay-out were totally messed up: at the log-in screen the fonts were huge and I mean really huge. I couldn't read anything on that page because the fonts were to big. A problem I never had with Windows

Next was the fact that the wireless connection wouldn't connect half of the time. You had to be lucky to get a connection. Sometimes the connection was there when you fired up Ubuntu, sometimes I had to restart 5 times to get connected, another problem I never have with Windows.

Last but not least is the compatibility. A lot of the programs and games I'm used to play/use don't work on Linux. The solution for that is using partitions but I didn't see the use at keeping Ubuntu with so many disadvantages when I compare it to Windows XP.

Maybe Fluxbuntu is better, I don't know and I'm not going to find out. Trying to remove Ubuntu only lead to a complete format of my hard disk so that really keeps me from trying Linux again. Maybe when I get a new computer I'll install a build of Linux on it (not Ubuntu again, the memories of Ubuntu are just too bad) since my laptop will only be used to surf, play music, watch movies, etc... and yes, Linux is a lot faster and a lot more stable than Windows, that's true. But it also has a lot of different issues.
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.// Proud to be Lifeless for more then 4 years \\.

[ClickFanatic]

Let's see. Fluxbuntu is an Ubuntu spin-off which uses the Fluxbox window manager.

I used Fluxbox myself more than a year ago. It is a very light weight window manager, but I hate it's utterly boring simplicity.

I personally found XFCE to be much better in terms of customisability. The consistency of the whole desktop environment isn't that great in Fluxbox, in my opinion. Gnome might seem cluttered in many ways, but it also has many features. XFCE is pretty balanced (not too much bloat, but can be customised quite well). Fluxbox is just to basic in my opinion.

But that's the sweet thing about Linux, you can choose what you want.
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Captain Jell-O Buster from the Future
[img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/sparepencil.1.gif[/img]

[krt]

kenoodo: after using it for 2 days now, I'm not sure about its suitability for first time users. There are quite a few once off things to be done, e.g. for simple things such as listening to MP3s, viewing PDFs etc. Personally, I prefer that as I seldom liked the choices of Gnome and KDE and I found myself spending too much time then I should need to removing packages. I'd try Ubuntu first, it also has a live CD and does have support for Chinese (great support for multi-lingual apps as well, especially with the automatic installation and configuration of apps for your language).

ruyss: Games, fair enough. I don't play games much so haven't done much with Wine or alternatives that let you install Windows games on Linux. But applications, I have found Linux equivalents for everything I used on Windows, and often, the Linux ones are better. For example, which programs are currently incompatible that you have not found an alternative for? Bad luck with those issues, wireless/DHCP were a bit of an issue for me and involved the command line to get it set up but it was fine after that. But then again, getting my wireless to work on Windows was just as hard with XP in my case.

ClickFanatic: That's fine. In fact, I intend on trying a few DEs including XFCE again due to its balance between capabilities and lack of bloat as you mentioned. The beauty of choice is a factor in my choice of getting Fluxbuntu, it is not completely barebone, but trimmed down enough so I can start everything how I want. The use of Fluxbox is not really important as that can be interchanged and the main menu even has a ready to go switcher once you install a new one.

[mcwkm]

kde, gnome, xfce, fluxbox, and others are just desktop managers. if you don't like one try another. if you don't have a lot of system resources run a lighter one. it is just one of the many advantages of linux.
if you like fluxbox and already have ubuntu installed you can just install fluxbox on top of that and use it instead of the default gnome enviornment instead of going and installing another distro.
i have yet to try it yet but enlightenment is suppose to be nice but needs more resources. i believe it can also run ontop of gnome and kde. you can find more info about it here http://www.enlightenment.org/

[krt]

It's not just the desktop environment mcwkm. I know I can switch easily but the main problem is with the desktop metapackages and settings associated with each variant of ubuntu.

I have plenty of system resources so obviously I am not sticking with fluxbox but I still prefer Fluxbuntu for its minimal yet still very usable setup.

[mcwkm]

If your problems are based within ubuntu and not the desktop manager why would you switch to another ubuntu based distro. Why not try another distro that is not an ubuntu variation or better yet try one that is not based off of debian. There are plenty of linux distros out there so you should be able to find one. If you found a desktop manager you like and don't like the distro you are using try another distro with that desktop manager.

[krt]

[ClickFanatic]

Have you tried Ubuntu's base install? It's basically the set of packages that all Ubuntu derivatives are built from. You will have to install a bunch of packages, but you can be sure there is hardly a thing that you don't need or want.
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Captain Jell-O Buster from the Future
[img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/sparepencil.1.gif[/img]

[krt]

I was looking into that or ubuntu-minimal but I figured everything would be configured likewise so once you install the needed packages, it will end up back in the same state as a normal install. Maybe this is not the intent of ubuntu's base install but I'm too lazy to find out.

[ClickFanatic]

[krt]

Oh well... it was much easier than with ubuntu-desktop this way and if I ever need to install it again, I'll try to remember base/minimal packages of Ubuntu. There were other advantages too, packages I never bothered to try turned out to be quite useful. As for having to change many things, it is a breeze with package management.

Anyway, it does seem what I done was nothing close to optimal but I've already got a system that is in a better state than what I had with a few months on Kubuntu, and no more of those sig11 errors or whatever they are that popped up on Kubuntu time to time.