Recently in Fluxbuntu Category

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.

I probably should've tried Zenwalk Live 4.4.1, which was released Wednesday, but I figured that since Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 is out today (or at least that's when Distrowatch announced it), I might as well get Feisty. I thought I would try Xubuntu instead, given that my hardware is generally as old as the hills, but Xubuntu seems to be the only official 'Buntu NOT to have a release at this time. Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Edbuntu are all available ... that is if you can get them. All the mirrors are crazy busy -- I started one download that said it would take 36 hours (and I have a wicked-fast connection). I couldn't seem to even start any more downloads of the ISO for the Ubuntu 7.04 Live CD, and I was surprised when I was able to begin a much-faster download of the alternate-install CD.

In my last post, I recounted how the Xubuntu 6.10 alternate CD would not install on my Maxspeed Maxterm thin client. Well, today I decided to shove a few more CDs into the drive to see what would happen. I began with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, the long-term support edition of Ubuntu. It booted, no problem. But I hesitate to continue with the install because my Feisty download should be done in 3.5 hours.

I did like Zenwalk 4.2, and I will be looking at 4.4.1, but let's face it, in a month that has seen new releases of Debian and Mepis, plus my personal favorites Puppy and Damn Small Linux, Ubuntu is the 9,000-pound gorilla of Linux, and it must be contended with.

... Now my download is saying four hours ... time to install 6.06.

After thinking that I'm "breaking" some kind of news on Fluxbuntu becoming an official port of Ubuntu, I go back to the Ubuntu Forums and find out that the April 1 day meant that it was an April Fool's joke from Fluxbuntu principal Joe Jaxx, reports bodhi.zazen, the other Fluxbuntu biggie who posted it in the first place.

Guess I should've checked it out further.

Here's what bodhi.zazen writes in the forum:

Re: Fluxbuntu

Ha ha ha ...

I forgot to tell you Joe Jaxx told me this on April 1st, so it looks like the joke is on me

Sorry to have mislead you all in my excitement

The Fluxbuntu website is under construction and there is a release planned based on Feisty shortly after April 19 th.

But Fluxbutu is not going "official" at this time. Ha ha

Oh yeah, I'm so laughing right now. Who doesn't like a good software-release April Fool's joke?

UPDATE ON APRIL 11: It was all a joke, I guess "April 1" should've tipped me off:

It didn't happened April 1, but you'd think it did, according to this portion of the Ubuntu forums.

I've given Fluxbuntu middling marks in the past, but I see why the Linux community needs it. To have the lightness of Damn Small Linux (albeit without the ease of use) along with the repositories, support and sheer numbers of Ubuntu would be a very powerful thing indeed. But joking about how your distro is doing better than it really is? I guess if you said something like "CIA adopts Fluxbuntu as spies' distro of choice," it would've been absurd enough, but making your joke along the lines of "if we didn't have so much work to do, what I'm joking about could really happen," that's just a little bit sad.

Where Fluxbuntu can make up for its obsession with "the CLI," as they call it (command-line interface), they'll have to really step it up when it comes to documentation. I think plenty of users would be OK going to the command line for many more things if they knew exactly what to do once they got there. There has to be a Fluxbuntu Cookbook in the mix. (I'm reading the No Starch Press version of the "Linux Cookbook," and am so far very impressed.)

In keeping with this now-not-happening "promotion" for Fluxbuntu, its Web site is down so it can be rejiggered to reflect the change, the forum writer bodhi.zazen incorrectly reports:

Yes, the Fluxbuntu web site is being re-designed to reflect the change. The (first) Fluxbuntu release is due out within a few days of Feisty (Previous releases have been n builds and beta builds).

and on the expansion of the Ubuntu brand ...

The numerous "versions" of Ubuntu are a sign of a large healthy community of Ubuntu users and a testament to the flexibility, versatility, and power of Linux. With a large community there are varied needs. The various "versions" of Ubuntu allow us all to configure the Ubuntu OS the way we like. Personally I like the clean elegance of Fluxbox and I appreciate Fluxbuntu as a lean, fast, and efficient OS.

Fluxbuntu is NOT an ubuntu desktop installation + fluxbox.