For those that are not familiar, RPM Fusion is essentially like taking most of the awesome first party Personal Package Archives (PPA’s) that Ubuntu has (XBMC Media Center, SABnzbd+, etc) and rolling them up into one grand source. However, despite looking really well done, having solid documentation, and a lot to offer in terms of packages (no Firefox Beta or Aurora unfortunately) I just couldn’t get the NVIDIA drivers to work on my system.

This could well be a bug that will be soon fixed either in Fedora 16 or some issue with the newer NVIDIA drivers that RPM Fusion offers compared to Ubuntu (version 185 instead of 180). It could also be something foolish I did being a novice user of Fedora (however I did follow RPM Fusion’s NVIDIA directions to a “T” and tried multiple times without any change in results).

So, after a couple of days of using Fedora and genuinely enjoying it (when I didn’t try to install the proprietary drivers that is), I reached the point where I was no longer willing to spend the time with it and did a fresh install of Xubuntu. Going back to this official Ubuntu derivative also brought to light some things I have taken for granted in the Ubuntu realm.

First off, the install was dead simple and required much less hands-on time compared to Fedora’s. Once I gave the Xubuntu installer the information it needed I could leave it completely alone until it was done. With Fedora there were multiple steps that I had to wait for it to finish and then continue on afterwards.

Xubuntu’s install was also screamingly fast and once it was done installing and I had it rebooted I already had the NVIDIA drivers installed along with a much more polished implementation of the Xfce desktop environment (DE) (the Xubuntu crew really puts a nice shine on Xfce, whereas Fedora’s implementation is essentially the default Xfce configuration).

After that initial reboot and a few quick add-apt-repository commands into the good ol’ terminal and I had available the latest and greatest versions of XBMC Media Center and SABnzbd+ as well as Firefox’s beta channel and Spotify (via their repository, not a PPA). Another hour or so of mucking around with getting everything installed, setup, and configured to my taste and my HTPC system was good to go!

For those that are curious in regards to my install of Xubuntu instead of Ubuntu (or Xfce instead of Unity), since late September I have been using Xfce as my DE of choice for both my custom Home Theater Personal Computer (HTPC) and my second-hand ASUS Eee PC 900 HD netbook. Similarly, sedux has also gone (back) to Xfce (also by way of Xubuntu). This change brings about a bit more responsiveness from our respective systems, but the main reason for the switch was simply to disable composting (transparency) on my HTPC and to remove the visual tearing and choppiness that it causes when playing episodic and cinematic content in XBMC.

I had hoped Unity 2d would allow for this but the configuration option just isn’t there at this time, and even using third-party tools to disable transparency in Unity 2d didn’t elicit the same results that Xfce had (and I had forgotten how good 1080p could look!).

Another option to get the tear-free playback would be to log off from Ubuntu (Unity) and select XBMC for the session, but that’s more of a hassle than I want right now. This is mainly because I often times want to be able to run Firefox or perform other tasks while playing media and having to either degrade my viewing experience by running Unity or interrupt my work flow by logging off just to run XBMC simply isn’t as appealing as running Xfce.

Additionally, Xfce brings with it other advantages. It’s got a nice classic desktop layout. It’s spunky to boot-up and remains quick while it is used. Unity 2d is admittedly not much of a slouch either, but Xubuntu’s implementation of Xfce seems a bit quicker yet. Then there’s the ability to right click and actually have something happen (not just another left click as in Unity!) and from that right-click menu almost everything can be customized or configured to taste. Also, since Xfce is modular and doesn’t prescribe certain applications for specific functions, if I find something missing in Xubuntu’s default kit, it is super simple to supplement with Nautilus (Gnome’s File Manager) or anything else!

As outlined above, there are lots of good, sound reasons to use Xfce currently, but apart from that, when it gets right down to it, something about Xfce just makes me feel happy when I use it. It’s pleasant.

With its slow and conservative changes Xfce is not trying to reinvent the wheel and one can pretty much always know what to expect from it. There’s something that’s definitely comforting about that. Further, with people being dissatisfied with Unity and Gnome 3, Xfce is reportedly seeing an increase in usage. With this possible uptick in usage, we may also see some additional developers coming on to help out with Xfce thus allowing the project to smooth out some of the remaining rough edges in the upcoming 4.10 release and beyond.

Anyway, so Xfce is neat and Fedora is neat but where am I going with all this? Ubuntu is still Ainer.org’s recommended personal computer operating system and what we will continue to base all of our guides off of. However, Xubuntu is a swell alternative for those that are running HTPC’s, or for those that aren’t quite ready to jump into the “next-generation” of tablet and mobile computing inspired desktop GUI’s (such as Unity and Gnome 3). With that said, for those that are more novice users. I would recommend installing Ubuntu just as you normally would then installing the xubuntu-desktop package. After xubuntu-desktop is installed you should be able to select Xubuntu for your session at the login screen (click on the little gear icon). The reason for installing Ubuntu then Xubuntu is that Xubuntu and Xfce are still a bit more targeted at power users than they are novices. So, having Ubuntu already installed will bring in most of the ease of use programs that Ubuntu and Unity offer while still allowing you all the flexibility that Xfce and Xubuntu offer! Win win!

Similarly, with regards to Fedora, Ubuntu will still remain Ainer.org’s recommended OS for the foreseeable future. However, I’m going to be trying Fedora more and more as time goes on and we will see where that leads. I’m likely going to be doing some more enthusiast level news articles in the future and broaden this site’s scope a bit more. The novice friendly guides will always be here and will be updated (at latest) in time for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin), but to keep this site more interesting for myself I may be branching out a bit more in due time.

On a related note, for any of you that have wondered what happened in the last few months, sedux, Tower, and myself have taken a step back to get a bit more perspective on Ainer.org and will be returning to it presently with our pragmatic approach intact along with some new areas of focus and (much needed!) updates to some of our guides.

And that’s it for “Ubuntu Alternatives, Xfce, & Fedora,” hope you enjoyed and best wishes all!