[svlug] Which Xubuntu?

[Brian J. Tarricone]

Hi Skip,

First, a disclaimer: I'm an Xfce module maintainer, so I'm not
particularly objective.

Skip Evans wrote:

> The intended use will be for our office 
> workstations, developing PHP/MySQL code, so our 
> most common apps are Kate code editor, Firefox 
> browser, Konqy for FTPing to sites, etc.

Are you intending on replacing kate and konqueror with something else?
Installing those two will negate much of the benefits of using a
different desktop.  You'll still need pretty much all of KDE's
libraries, and you'll need many of KDE's background daemons running
behind Xfce's.

Note that Thunar (Xfce's file manager) does not support FTP, so you'll
need to find a standalone app for this.

> It would be nice to have GUI interfaces for things 
> like adding printers and stuff like that.

Our support for printing is somewhat spotty, but that doesn't stop you
from installing a non-Xfce CUPS config GUI, for example.  While Xfce's
non-core-desktop application base is growing, there are only around 10
of us working on Xfce actively, so it's slow going.  In the meantime,
our motto is generally "use whatever non-Xfce app works best for you."

> We're using Debian/Fluxbox now, but looking for 
> something between Fluxbox and full-blown KDE/Gnome 
> type stuff.

This is more or less exactly the general type of audience Xfce ends up
hitting.  That and people with somewhat-older hardware.

> Now I just want to know which of those two listed 
> on the site to choose from, or if it really makes 
> much difference.

If memory serves, Dapper is based on Xfce 4.4beta1, which, while
decently stable, probably isn't the best idea.  Edgy is based on 4.4rc1
(I think), which is a bit better (we also had a rc2 before 4.4.0 final).
 The Xubuntu guys have been applying some of our more important patches
to their 4.4rc1 .debs, so Xubuntu's version is probably more or less
"bugfix-compatible" with 4.4.0.

My understanding is that the next release of Xubuntu, 'Feisty Fawn',
will have long-term support, and is due out Real Soon Now[tm].

> By the way, this will be loaded on a spare box 
> first to see how it feels, so it's not like we're 
> committing to anything right away.

What's your timeframe?  If you're just evaluating the platform in
general (and not a particular version), you might want to try out Edgy
for a while, upgrade to Feisty when it's out, give it some testing, and
then deploy Feisty.  I haven't checked, but my assumption is that Feisty
will have Xfce 4.4.0 on it (likely with post-4.4.0 patches), so it'll be
a more stable experience than Edgy.

On a side note, I've heard some horror stories about upgrading from
Dapper to Edgy.  Apparently the fault was more with Edgy, and upgrading
from Dapper or Edgy to Feisty should not be a problem.  But I thought
I'd mention it anyway as a warning.

	-brian