Xubuntu - Goals

Goals

Xubuntu's goals are to:

provide an easy to use distribution, based on Ubuntu, using Xfce as the graphical desktop, with a focus on integration, usability and performance, with a particular focus on low memory footprint. The integration in Xubuntu is at a configuration level, a toolkit level, and matching the underlying technology beneath the desktop in Ubuntu. Xubuntu will be built and developed autonomously as part of the wider Ubuntu community, based around the ideals and values of Ubuntu.

The Xfce desktop environment is intended to use fewer system resources than the default Ubuntu Unity desktop. As recently as September 2010 the Xubuntu developers claimed that the minimum RAM Xubuntu could be run on was 128 MB, with 256 MB of RAM strongly recommended at that time.

Testing conducted by Martyn Honeyford at IBM in January 2007 on Xubuntu 6.10 concluded that it "uses approximately 25 MB less application memory, and also eats significantly less into buffers and cache (which may imply that there is less file activity) than Ubuntu."

Later testing showed that Xubuntu was at a disadvantage compared to Debian equipped with the Xfce desktop. Tests were conducted by DistroWatch on a Dell Dimension 4500 desktop machine, with an Intel 2 GHz processor and 384 MB of memory in April 2009, that compared Xubuntu 9.04 against an Xfce desktop version of Debian 5.0.1. These showed that Xubuntu used more than twice the RAM as Debian in simple tasks. Xubuntu also ran out of RAM doing everyday tasks, indicating that 384 MB of RAM was inadequate. The review concluded "It was obvious I had already run out of RAM and was starting to use swap space. Considering I wasn't doing very much, this was rather disappointing". Subsequent experimentation by Distrowatch concluded that the performance advantages observed in Debian were due to Xubuntu's inclusion of memory-hungry software not present in Debian's implementation of Xfce.

Testing conducted on a later version, Xubuntu 9.10 beta, in September 2009 showed similar results. The tests, conducted by Linux Magazine, concluded that Xubuntu 9.10 beta's RAM usage was actually greater than Ubuntu's 9.10 beta with GNOME.

Subsequent reviewers emphasized Xubuntu's perceived deficiencies in performance to highlight Lubuntu, a project with similar goals but using the LXDE desktop environment as opposed to Xfce. For instance, Damien Oh of Make Tech Easier noted in May 2010, "So what about Xubuntu? isn’t it supposed to be the lightweight equivalent of Ubuntu? Sadly, that is a thing of the past. The truth is, the supposed lightweight equivalent is not lightweight at all. While Xubuntu is using the lightweight XFCE desktop environment, it had been bugged down by several heavyweight applications and also the integration with GNOME desktop also makes it lose its advantage."

As of the Xubuntu 11.04 release the developers now "strongly recommend" 512 MB of RAM to use Xubuntu. This is the same as is recommended for Ubuntu 11.04.