Fluxbuntu back on track

Fluxbuntu is back, says project leader Joe Jaxx at Fluxbuntu.org of the fledgling Ubuntu variant that installs with a Fluxbox window manager (fast, light -- a great alternative to GNOME, KDE or Xfce.

Jaxx writes:

We were really expecting to release Fluxbuntu Feisty as the Final and First version of Fluxbuntu but we ran into the following problems which were critical:

1. We started 3 months into the Ubuntu Feisty development cycle, which means we lost 3 months in development time compared to everyone else (Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu). This also came from starting late within the Dapper/Edgy development cycle.

...

Now we could fix all these things in Feisty, but by the time we do and release, we might have just released Gutsy (and it will also delay Gutsy Development another three months). So I have decided to have Fluxbuntu Final when Gutsy Gibbon is released in October.

...

Standard Features:

1. The ability to choose whether you want to have just VESA support or card specific support

2. The ability to choose which variant of the Fluxbuntu Desktop Environment you wish to use

3. Automounting of Removable Devices

4. On System Documentation on how to use Fluxbuntu

5. Graphical System Configuration Utilities

6. More Intuitive Menu

7. REALLY Nice Artwork

Experimental Features:

Here are some features we are looking at (might or might not be in Gutsy):

1. Document revision control

2. The ability to take your desktop with you and use it on any Fluxbuntu computer.

I liked the Fluxbox window manager so much from my use of it in Damn Small Linux that I recently took my Debian box running GNOME and installed Fluxbox on it. Once I figured out (from the Mepis help pages, no less) how to get a menu on the thing, I started to build it just the way I want it, fine-tuning the apps and menus. And now I have Fluxbox with the power and stability of Debian beneath it. All I need now is a terminal program that defaults to bigger type than Xterm (I have to ctrl-right-click every time to bump up the type size, and I'd rather have it as a default. I'm not above using the GNOME terminal, which is surprisingly quick).

I also like the new AntiX spin on Mepis that is also based on Fluxbox, which is great for low-spec systems ... as long as they have 128 MB RAM, since AntiX (and probably the Mepis code underneath it) can't handle the 64 MB limit of my $15 Laptop but runs great on my test box (Via C3 1 GHz-based thin client, CD and hard drives out of the box via a long cable, 256 MB RAM).

One of the attractions of AntiX, besides a lot of apps that I really like, is that it has Synaptic, although that feature wasn't working the last time I tried it. AntiX isn't even in beta yet, so I'm giving its developer, a guy who goes by the handle Anticapitalista, the benefit of the doubt).

Since Mepis' founder Warren Woodford ended development on MepisLite, I'd been hoping somebody would reconfigure Mepis for the rest of us ... i.e. the low-spec-running world that I'm pretty much working in all the time. And AntiX is a great step in that direction. It's what Fluxbuntu should be aspiring to.

Back to Fluxbuntu: Having a lightweight environment wrapped around the Ubuntu base is a very worthy project, and I hope Jaxx and Co. really do get things back on track.

My impressions of Fluxbuntu's last release candidate were less than glowing. Its developers have a worshipful view of the Linux command line, which is great if you're running a command-line distro -- and anybody can install a stripped-down Ubuntu and build it up from there. But in Fluxbuntu, it all seemed to be done at the expense of even script-drive configuration help (I didn't expect any GUI configuration utilities). If you do throw people into an environment meant for experts only, it's nice to give the non-experts the tools they need to make use of what you're offering them.

When I tried the last Fluxbuntu release candidate, right out of the box I had to figure out how to set a static IP address at the command line. It's really not that hard -- except when you've never done it before. What's needed with Fluxbuntu is extensive documentation on how to set up and use it. Having a couple of good Linux reference books is a must for anybody using the OS, more so for a distro like Fluxbuntu, in which getting your hands dirty, so to speak, is needed on a regular basis.

Even so, I'd sure like to see Fluxbuntu rise again and become a full member of the Ubuntu family.