Ubuntu Lite resurfaces as Ubuntulite

Remember Ubuntu Lite? The lighter-than-Xubuntu, more-graphical-than-Fluxbuntu variant of Ubuntu seemed about to get off the ground last year. Then it disappeared. In that time, Fluxbuntu has floundered, too. And while Xubuntu has never looked better and generally runs pretty well, I'd like to see Ubuntu play in the space occupied by Puppy, Damn Small Linux, DeLi and AntiX.

To that end, Ubuntulite is back. Rather than being its own ISO, the Ubuntulite install begins with a server install of Ubuntu and then uses a script to add the Lite-ness from the Ubuntu and Ubuntulite repositories. Here are the instructions. One thing I learned: There's a Ubuntu Feisty net install CD. I'm a great believer in the network install -- one of the greatest things about Debian.

The new Ubuntulite was announced today:

Ubuntulite 0.6 is now officially available by means of the repository. It now features the addition of menu, slim, and mtpaint and the removal of xdm, gimp, slocate, scrollkeeper, genisoimage, fetchmail, and bogofilter as dependencies.

The install script is now updated and is now version 1. Please update How-to's for the new package. Hopefully updates to the install script will now be less often thanks to a change I made to its coding. The mini.iso is now named mini-feisty.iso too, so please update accordingly.

From the Ubuntulite "about us" page:

History

Evidences points to Matic Ahacic creating the Ubuntulite project in May 2005. Another person instrumental to the beginnings of Ubuntulite is Colin McDermott who designed the original site. Matoc Ahacic and Colin McDermott, however, could no longer contribute to the project around May 2006. Then the current project leader, Shae Smittle, took over. Progress was slow at first, but the results are a changed program selection and a renewed vigor for development. The future for Ubuntulite is bright.

Mission Statement

Ubuntulite strives to make modern software available for older computers in an easy-to-use distribution while upholding the Ubuntu Code of Conduct and contributing back to the community.

Goal

Provide a distribution with regular releases that can comfortably run on computers that currently run Microsoft Windows 98.

There's already a Google Group for the emerging distro.

The window manager for Ubuntulite is Openbox. Here's where you can get the needed files to do the install. I can't believe that an 8.8 MB image can do the network install. Debian's installer is much larger, if I remember correctly.

I wish much luck to the people putting Ubuntulite together. The quicker they get their own installer, the better. Going up against projects like Puppy and DSL is daunting, as is trying to add a flavor to the Ubuntu ice-cream truck and actually get it to official status. It'll be interesting to see what happens (if anything).