It's somewhat similar to Gnome in look as it uses the GTK framework, but much lighter in RAM and quite flexible. Yes, Xfce would be an excellent choice for those specs. If you are a minimalist there are lighter desktops still, but Xfce offers a lot of features for the welter resource footprint.
damn that's kinda cool. Makes me go wanna buy a cheap laptop to run linux on it but I don't think I'd have a use for one really
I have a use for one, that being network audits! Unfortunately this laptop is not mine; I'm gonna need to buy one.
What distro's bundle xfce? Unfortunately SuSe 10 doesn't have it, so I need to download another distro especially for this laptop. I need a distro that is: -especially good for laptops -runs xfce -easy to use (because I am still a beginner ) -light on resources What would you recommend? .......Mandriva!
Mandriva is good, but I don't like Mandriva's implementation of Xfce as much as Ubuntu's to be honest. I'm not a huge fan of the Ubuntu, as it's not quite as solid nor as secure out-of-the box as I'm used to most Linux distros being. But it is still Linux, and terms like 'solid' and 'secure' are relative terms with OSes like Windows in the world. Still, Mandriva has much better wireless support and is IMHO a smarter design overall than Ubuntu. So meh, either way. Probably if using Xfce as your primary desktop is your biggest concern, go with Ubuntu. If not, go with Mandriva.
I'm not bothered either way. I just want a GUI that won't bog down a P2 laptop. Would GNOME fit that bill as well, or is it too resource hungry?
Gnome is more resource hungry than KDE, so you'd be much better of with a lighter desktop. Xfce is more of a middle-weight desktop than a light one, but I think it would be sufficiently fast without leaving you feel too naked and exposed. A super-light desktop is fine for someone who understands the underlying system well, but is not very helpful to a user who is less than famaliar with what's going on under the hood.
mmmm, that brown skin of ubuntu is horrible! I understand Debian and Fedora support Xfce. What are they like?
Well, I don't recommend using Gnome at all, as IMHO it is a poor desktop. And the color schemes can be changed easily in Xfce, so it's kinda moot, don't you think? (P.S. - I agree that the earthy tones are drab-looking) Ubuntu is a Debian-based distro which is made easy for beginners to use, which is why I recommended it at all. Fedora is less than desirable, IMO. It is basically a test-bed so Red Hat can work the kinks out of RHEL, not much good on the desktop if you ask me. It's a cluttered, disjointed mess. Many recent converts from Windows seem to like FC quite a bit, but I suspect that may be from lack of a reference point in the Linux world.
Thanks for the tip. What are your thoughts on Red Hat? I understand it isn't offered for free; that's what Fedora is all about?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is actually a pretty decent server platform, although it's not very good on the desktop IMHO ...though I'd still prefer RHEL over Windows for getting the real work done. You're right that Red Hat is not free as in 'gratis', though it is still under the GPL which makes it free as in 'libre'. That's why the CentOS project exists. It's a 100% free (as in gratis and libre) version of RHEL, since it is built from the same source code but all of the RH logos and trademarks are removed. Fedora Core is the free version of RH, sort of. FC is not backed by Red Hat itself, it is 100% community driven and supported. Basically RH uses FC as free testing and development for its RHEL products, taking certain packages that have been in FC for a while, adding more polish and testing, and releasing them as a non-gratis product. This is in contrast to vendors like Mandriva, who have pledged to always have a 100% gratis community version of their OS that is actually backed by their company. In fact, there is very little difference between the community version of Mandriva and the retail versions except for corperate support and proprietary (non-GPL) packages.
hehe, you had to throw in the bit about Mandriva - I knew you couldn't resist! Can you post some screen shots of Ubuntu running Xcfe? I would like to see the control centre and whatever the equivalent to YaST is
There is no equivilent to YAST or MCC in Ubuntu, as each of the configuration tools are seperate. Xfce has its own consolidated look & feel control panel though.
Does that make ubuntu any more complicated? Are those pictures taken from your Powerbook? Xfce looks pretty clean.
Not really, everything is still organized in pretty much the same place. It's just not as convenient I suppose. Yeah, that's from the PowerBook. Custom window frames, color scheme and background though.
