The snappiest of ubuntu derivatives
 

What is the snappiest (meaning subjectively faster in the user interface, but perhaps a little slower in other areas) of the ubuntu derivatives?

Wattos? http://www.planetwatt.com/

Bodhi Linux
Lubuntu

The fastest IMO would be a minimal install with fluxbox/E16/E17 (or other WM), LXDE or even XFCE installed afterward. BTW, Xfce4 should be slightly faster than xubuntu-desktop.

It varies from release to release, but not that long ago a minimal install + gnome was lighter, and faster, than xubuntu.

Roll your own. There's a good tutorial here:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/minimal

This one seems promising. But after a while I realised firefox and opera are not available in synaptic? You're supposed to download script bundles ending with .bod to install these.

Have you tried this distro? Why the .bod's?

I personally haven't used it so far, bit got some good reviews.

About the .bod files, I found this at the Bodhi Wiki:

The sum of firefox and its dependencies a smaller download than the .debs? Strange. Wondering if they are in fact hiding something in their bundle of firefox and that is why they are not allowing an ordinary download from the standard ubuntu repos with synaptic.

You got that wrong. It is not intended to be smaller, it is intended to be just one package, instead of all the debs you would need to install Firefox. It is just easier to install without network connection.
And I doubt that they put anything in there that shouldn't be seen by a normal user. I would call that a little bit paranoid. I wonder why you are not wondering about the same in the Ubuntu-package? While Bodhi Linux is a community distro Ubuntu is made by a company that would have much more interest in spying at you.

But anyways, feel free to download Firefox directly from Mozilla, if you are concerned about that.

We can't do that. Mozilla is all the time trying to deep mine for our information.

OK, so I am a smart a$$.

Setting up the package that way would be simpler for a respin outfit to do than to create a single deb that would install all that stuff in the right order.

Really? TobiSGDs post make me think that the .bod files are just there for offline use.

As far as firefox goes, I would have thought that you would be able to use synaptic/software cener to d/l and install. The bodhi wiki says this as well-

http://www.bodhilinux.com/wiki/doku.php?id=philosophy

Opera, that could be different. I've never tried installing opera on a ubuntu box, if its anything like debian you need to add a repo to get it from synaptic/apt-get etc..

I still havent tried bodhi, and if I did it would only be because its a easy way to get E17. I've run E17 on debian a few times, it wasnt good enough to make me stick with it but maybe its time to have another look at the wolrd longest running development time WM. LOL

I really wish that they would release a non 'preview' E17.

+1. I've got no problems with paranoia, but if you are worrying about the whole .bod thing, or ubuntu, then a different distro might be a better idea.

It is their main purpose, but I think they will also work if you try installing online.
This made me curious about Bodhi, I will download and install it to a VM. I will report back later if you can install Firefox without using the .bod-file.

OK, I installed it, and at first I couldn't install Firefox with Synaptic. I then have enabled the proposed-updates and backports repositories from Ubuntu, and after that I could install Firefox with Synaptic. So that is not really a problem.

Sidenote: Boot and install time are very fast, even in a VM.

IMHO it's much easier to just go to Mozilla website, download firefox, unarchive to somewhere and run it(can make shortcut too). But yea i understand you wanted try something else so this is just small suggestion for other people who want firefox in easy way.

In my experience, regular Ubuntu is very fast and snappy. Maybe its just this computer though.

Very subjective question, really.

Yes, quite subjective.

9.04 and 9.10 were improvements in speed, particularly booting and shut down. As of 10.04 and up, 8.04 boots as fast or faster and it actually will shut down, something 10.04 and up will not do. 8.04 also is as fast in everyday operations. I still have it and 9.04 on here but the rest are almost gone (one install for pre-release testing).

If I wanted to be as fast as possible I would not put layers between myself and the core of the OS. I would start with a Debian netboot image and build from there.

Either that or check out Lubuntu 11.04. I have the image down loaded, need to add it to my grub and give it a shot. They want it to run on 254 of ram. Should run like a scalded ape on a modern box. Their 10.04 version did.

Thanks, this works alright. But wait a sec, firefox is an update to something? Is that so in ubuntu too?

No need to enabled extra repos to install Firefox or Opera under Bodhi. You simply need to run an apt-get update first to sync your package lists.

Firefox 4.0, 3.6 and the latest Opera browser are all in the default Bodhi repos :)

Cheers,
~Jeff

Linux Mint of course.

I have been using Lubuntu (with LXDE desktop) since 10.10 came out. For me it runs just as fast and light as Ubuntu did back in the days of Breezy 5.10 and Dapper 6.06. Lubuntu includes many lightweight alternatives to the apps that are included with Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Lubuntu 11.04 is running just as snappy as 10.10 for me so far.
Keep in mind though, if you start installing some of the heavier apps like Rhythmbox or Amarok for example, you will be adding a boatload of K/Ubuntu dependencies that can start to weigh down some of the lighter Ubuntu derivatives.

I can't help but say in my opinion your better off giving Debian a shot. I run various versions from plain Squeeze right through to Sid/Experimental and they are all snappy (even with Gnome). Reminds me of Fiesty Fawn (Ubuntu 7.04) with how responsive it is on a low powered machine.

This has been true in my experience also. I have had various versions of both Debian stable and Ubuntu installed on the same computers. Debian has always ran faster and used fewer resources than Ubuntu.
Since Ubuntu is a Debian derivative, it is not too difficult to move from Ubuntu to Debian.

The E desktop makes just about any Linux base fly ;)

~Jeff

You are right, I should have tried that first.