Running Xubuntu. Does it make a difference if I upgrade to ubuntu?
 

I started out with Ubuntu 10.04, but then installed Edubuntu (I'm writing a book on open source software for educators). After this, I installed Qimo, which installed Xubuntu. So my question is, should I stick with Xubuntu when I upgrade from 10.04 to 11.04? I guess I'm really just curious about this. Thanks.

Essentially Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Kubuntu are all Ubuntu just running different desktop environments i.e. KDE, Xfce or Gnome.

And you can always install a different desktop in any of these.

Thanks for the replies. I knew that they're all the same OS, but with different default environments. I was just wondering if there were any unexpected repercussions to upgrading from one to another. Apparently not. That's pretty cool. I figured that it was better to check first before making a potentially debilitating mistake. Thanks again. I needed that affirmation.

The only "unexpected repercussion" can occur if you have an older processor. I installed Lubuntu 11.04 on an Acer Aspire T-180 with an AMD Sempron processor.

I read later that since Ubuntu 10.10 they are not supported anymore. The Gnome Mplayer crashed consistently after 10 to 30 secs. I could circumvent this by using vlc and smplayer. But when I installed xpdf the system hang at start-up. I re-installed and it worked first but hang again after installing xpdf.

As there are already warnings to not do it and I didn't know what program would strike next, I decided to install Lubuntu 10.04 which is been said to be fine with older processors and to be supported until 2012, too.

Minor technical detail- installing qimo-session doesnot install xubuntu-desktop-

http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/qimo-session

Xubuntu-desktop has a lot more packages-

http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/xubuntu-desktop

Having ubuntu 10.04 with edubuntu and qimo-session probably shouldnt make upgrading any harder or less likely to work. That said, lots of people have had issues with upgrading ubuntu. At the very least, take a backup before you upgrade.

BTW, there is the 'psychocats' page with lots of handy commands, like how to get back to 'pure' gnome from commands-

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

You might find it handy and/or useful. ;)

Thanks for information, dilbert and cascade9. dilbert, I have a laptop with a Sempron processor on site running ubuntu 10.04. After reading your post, I'm in no hurry to upgrade its OS. It runs fine as is. Thanks for filling me in on the lack of support for that cpu. The pc in question has a pentium d. I'll have to do some homework first.

cascade9, I must have installed installed other packages that required xfce when I installed qimo. In retrospect, I no longer need either of them, or edubuntu as I am past that point in my book and no longer need them for research. I guess I'm not surprised that people have had trouble with upgrading. It seems that the greater the likelihood of a problem-free upgrade, the greater the likelihood that something will go wrong. This isn't just Ubuntu, but virtually any major piece of software. Thanks for the information and the links, especially that last one. I think I'm going to put that to use this morning and get back to basics. Ubuntu has worked fine for me and I see no reason not get back to it, especially considering that GNOME is my preferred GUI anyway.

Thanks again, everyone.

I missed this, or else I would have asked before.

Ubuntu dropped support for semprons? Not as far as I know. I'd like to see a link, if possible.

If you really want gnome 2.X ('classic gnome') then ubuntu versions after 10.10 arent great options.

11.04 still has gnome 2.X, but it will be the last (and gnome 2.X is only used if you dont have the video hardware to run unity, or select classic gnome at the login screen). 11.10 will be moving to a gnome 3 base. Gnome 3 will still have 'fallback' mode (pretty much like gnome 2.X). I'm not really a gnome user, but from what I've seen around the net gnome 3 in fallback mode isnt quite the same as gnome 2.X.

The gnome 2.X 'problem' isnt just with ubuntu, the gnome foundation has discontinued the gnome 2.X project. So sooner or later a lot of distros that use gnome 2.X currently will be moving to gnome 3 (or Xfce, Lxde, KDE, etc.).

I wasn't a big GNOME user until I switched from Slackware to Ubuntu. Prior to that, I had an older system and usually ran Window Maker. The biggest limitation with my current system is the damned integrated 64MB AGP video card. At the time it seemed adequate and it performs well enough, especially after I upgraded my RAM to 1GB. After looking around online, I realize that GNOME is really in transition right now. I'm not in a huge hurry to upgrade, so long as 10.04 is supported. I'll just keep my eyes open and wait until my back is against the wall. If I have trouble running GNOME 3, I could always install something else. Thanks cascade9.

64MB intergrated AGP with a Pentium D? Sounds like an inel 865 chipset.

Gnome 3 (in 'gnome-shell' mode) wont run on that as far as I know. Gnome 3 fallback would, who knows how it would stack up against gnome 2.X after a year or two. It could be as good as gnome 2.X, or better...or it could be worse.

If it was me, I'd go for Xfce 4.X over gnome 3 in 'fallback' mode.

If you've got an AGP sot, adding a video card might not be a bad idea- less stress on the memory subsystem (as you are not 'sharing' main RAM for video use), get a bit more RAM back, and you would get a GPU (not a video display chip like intel 8XX has). You wont get any modern video cards working with AGP, but older cards that are still good for desktop/light gaming use are very cheap now.

I wondered about that. Unfortunately, the board doesn't have an AGP slot. I had it built, about which I had some misgivings. If I had done it myself, like I should have, I would've used a board without onboard video and sound. Then at least I could upgrade. I think running Xfce 4 over GNOME 3 "fallback mode" would be the answer. Thanks for all the info, cascade9.

I got a Sempron processor with 1000 MHz. Isn't this a K6 architecture equivalent to the i586?

With Lubuntu 11.04, the Gnome Mplayer doesn't play longer than 30 seconds. The screen is frozen, only the mouse is moving. No keystrokes are working. Only the power button in the PC case helps.

Then, I installed xpdf and after reboot it always hung. I tried this twice. I really don't want to spend much time to investigate all this.

I installed Puppy Wary 5.1.2 which runs fine already an a notebook with 192 MB RAM and there the Gnome MPlayer works fine.

Then, I installed Lubuntu 10.04 (alongside Puppy just in case) and everything works fine, too.

In https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/GetLubuntu
it is said:
"As support for the i386, i486, i586 chipsets has been dropped from both the kernel and GCC by Ubuntu from the 10.10 series onwards, lubuntu will continue to backport to the ppa updates for 10.04."

In

Thanks, dilbert_uk. I guess I'll staru with 10.04 for now. It works fine for now. My thanks also to the rest of you. Take care.

K6 is i586, but semprons are K7 or higher-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...AMD_Processors

No idea why you were getting issues with 11.04, but I stopped even testing *buntu releases years ago...

No problem. ;)

Finding a baord without onboard sound would have been tough, even back then. Finding i865 chipset boards without video was possible, but it did cost more (not only because you had to buy a video card, the i865P/i865PE chipsets (no video) were more expensive to start with).

As long as the board you choose has a slot for video expansion (AGP, PCIe or even PCI) there is not normally any problems with installing a video card. BTW, you could possibly get a PCI video card for your setup, but I wouldnt suggest it.

This board has two PCI slots and a PCIe slot. All too often I've shopped for PCIe cards online,found one I like and then discover that my search has led me away from PCIe cards to others (usually AGP). I'll keep looking though. Thanks. Yeah, I would imagine that a PCI video card would be agonizingly slow. Thanks again for the help, cascade9.