Xubuntu
Pronounced "zoo-BOON-too," Xubuntu is a community maintained Linux distribution derived from Ubuntu. It was released in June 2006, and new releases are issued every six months to coincide with the corresponding Ubuntu release.
Xubuntu was developed with the goal of focusing on "integration, usability, and performance." It consumes fewer system resources, squeezing more out of newer systems and breathing new life into machines with fewer, older, slower, or limited resources. It uses the Xfce desktop environment, designed to be fast and lightweight without compromising the visual enhancements of modern window management.
Applications
Xubuntu comes packaged with Firefox, Abiword, GIMP (GNU image manipulation program), Gnumeric for working with spreadsheets, and Parole for playing audio and video. It also comes with an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client (xIRC), e-mail application (Thunderbird), IM (instant message) client (Pidgin), among others.
Xubuntu includes the Ubuntu Software Center, a graphical tool that allows users to search and download from Ubuntu's software repository.
It uses Debian's advanced packaging tool (apt) for package and dependency management.
Minimum system requirements
Running Xubuntu from the hard drive requires 256 MB RAM, 512 MB is strongly recommended. It requires a minimum of 2 GB of space on the hard drive.
Xubuntu can also run from a bootable CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory) or USB (universal serial bus) thumb drive. Booting Xubuntu from a removable disk can be useful for trying it out without modifying the hard disk, or when no hard disk is available.
Dual-booting with Windows
Like most flavors of Ubuntu, Xubuntu can be installed with the Wubi installer, making it trivial to dual-boot with Microsoft Windows. Wubi is a Windows application that downloads Xubuntu, partitions the hard drive, installs Xubuntu and configures the boot loader in one easy process. When the machine is booted, the user is given the choice to boot into Windows or Xubuntu.
Performance
In testing, Xubuntu runs faster than Ubuntu, and somewhat slower than Lubuntu, an extremely lightweight Ubuntu variant that uses the LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment).