[sf-lug] Emmabuntus

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):

> Be sure to read the description on www.distrowatch.com.
> It seemed to me to be focused on Francophones.

I've read a bunch about it.  It's multilingual such that il n'est pas
nécessaire de parler français.

Short version:  Emmabuntüs 3's variation on Xubuntu 14.04 LTS seems like
a relief compared to Xubuntu 14.04 LTS, but only because Ubuntu's
implementation of XFCE4 has always been horribly bloated and sluggish
compared to everyone else's XFCE4.  And everyone else's XFCE4, in turn,
seems sprightly _only_ in comparison to GNOME (including by reference
MATE and Cinnamon) and KDE4.  Every single alternative to
GNOME/KDE4/XFCE4 -- from LXDE/LXQt to Openbox to Moksha Desktpop to
Lumina to ROX Desktop -- is far more lightweight.

My favorite tidbit about just how bloated the *buntu implementations of
XFCE4 tend to be was the '_ten times_ as much memory' bit in Distrowatch's 
comparison from 2009:
https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090504#feature

  Last week we took a look at how two distributions can be so very
  different even though they are based on the same technology (and even
  the same distribution). What we found was that the Ubuntu variant,
  Xubuntu, which comes with the Xfce desktop, used more than twice the
  amount of memory over Debian's implementation of the same desktop. The
  major difference came at the time of loading the desktop, where Xubuntu
  used almost ten times as much memory. Yes, almost 10 times (well,
  actually around 9.314705882 times). So why? Where does all this extra
  usage come from? Essentially it is due to Xubuntu's use of numerous
  services from the Ubuntu desktop environment, such as their graphical
  package manager and updater, network manager, power manager, proprietary
  driver manager and more, all of which use more memory. Debian on the
  other, chooses to use the software which comes with Xfce by default.

  
But, hey, people sold on the concept of Coca-Cola seek out Coca-Cola,
and people who think the world revolves around *buntu will inevitably
think Emmabuntüs is _great_ for older computers with limited RAM and
CPU, in exactly the same way an aching back feels terrific when someone
stops standing on your foot.  So, good folks who are like that, go ahead
and ignore the rest of the Linux world where a large number of smarter
choices await.