Xubuntu 12.04 uses the same booting mechanism as Ubuntu 12.04. This is new in the Precise Pangolin release, because previous versions gave you a list of options before the boot started: Try Xubuntu, Install, Check disk, and so on. This time around, there is no pre-boot menu. The system boots itself up to a screen where you have a selection of system language and a choice between Try Xubuntu and Install Xubuntu. This screen is very similar to the one you can see in Ubuntu, with a difference in colour scheme only.
While booting, Xubuntu automatically recognised and configured my wireless card Intel 3945 ABG, and scanned for available networks. As a result, I’ve seen a pop-up message saying that there were some networks around. The message disappeared, and left a grey rectangle after itself. Also, a similar grey space was around the Try/Install selection window. I suppose this is something to do with the default configuration options of the graphics card. This is strange, because I have never had problems with this card before.
Enough said about the boot screen. My choice was for Try Xubuntu, obviously. A few seconds more, and I’ve landed onto the defaultXubuntu screen.
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| Default desktop in Xubuntu 12.04 with Task Manager |
The Live session of Xubuntu 12.04 took about 220 Mb of memory on my laptop. It is less than I had in Ubuntu 12.04, but still more than you could expect from Xfce-based distribution.
If you are interested in dots and numbers, then I am happy to tell you that Xubuntu 12.04 uses Xfce 4.8 on top of Linux kernel 3.2.0-23.
Edit: Very important difference of Xubuntu from K- and Ubuntu! This version of OS does not require pae-enabled processor. Please see Ubuntu review with my comments about this.
Desktop
The desktop in Xubuntu 12.04 is very similar to the one I’ve seen in Xubuntu 11.10. It has default wallpaper in blue and grey colours. Although the image itself is different, the style is the same. There is a choice of 5-6 different wallpapers in the distribution, most of them are default wallpapers from previous versions of Xubuntu.
There is a panel at the top of the screen in Xubuntu 12.04 with the usual very familiar elements on it. The left top corner is taken by a menu button with an Xfce logo (mouse head) on it. Next to the menu button, you can find a task bar. It is followed by the notification area with power, messages, network, and volume icons. Next to the right are clocks and calendar. The switch between two virtual desktops sits next to the clocks. By the way, each desktop has its own set of applications on the taskbar. And finally, you see the button with your user name (xubuntu in Live session), which calls up the session management options: reboot, shutdown, lock screen and so on.
As you can see, there is nothing unexpected on the top panel inXubuntu 12.04.
Read Full Review at Source Web Site: linuxblog.darkduck.com
