I wrote this for a google group:
Having been convinced by Matt to give Ubuntu another try (In case you were curious, the first and last time I tried pure Ubuntu was with "Breezy Badger". It failed to install). However, being a Xfce advocate, I decided upon Xubuntu (The last time I tried Xubuntu was with "Dapper Drake". It installed OK, with frequent lockups). I had been scared off of Ubuntu by a bad experience with Kubuntu "Edgy Eft" that I now understand was a common issue.
My machine is a Pentium II 400mhz with 128mb RAM and a GeForce 2 MX. The LiveCD started up OK, but when Xfce started, it started without the panel. I have heard of that issue, and I suspect its cause is from a lack of RAM, seeing as how it worked OK on my system with 512mb RAM. Anyhow, the installer had several issues, including a glitch with partitioning. That was easily corrected, however, following my reading the release notes. The random installer lockups I had experienced with Dapper also seemed gone, although I seem to recall some lockup or something, I don't remember it well enough to report on it.When my system booted up, the Xfce panel was launched as expected. The restricted driver manager easily installed the driver for my video card, and the updater, although not automatic out-of-the-box, went smoothly and offered more details then the Fedora "Zod" updater (I realize that Fedora "Moonshine is out now). The package managers were also fantastic; the Add/Remove program is new since Dapper, and is awesome (although it tried to install some GNOME dependencies and I didn't know until it had already started downloading them), and Synaptic was as good as always.
Desktop-wise, Xfce has a clean-yet-modern feel that I have yet to see anyplace else. However, there's still some features missing in xfdesktop that won't be added until Xfce 4.4.2, and the Applications menu quit button doesn't work, forcing me to use the panel applet. The compositor for xfwm4, much revamped (and mostly new) in Feisty (4.4.0), beats the pixels off of GNOME's Metacity, offering such must-haves as window shadows and transparency, but my system is too slow to use it much. So far, I haven't had any crashes or lockups, although my limited hardware sometimes leads to sluggish performance.
I haven't been using Feisty off a hard drive very long--under a day--but so far my experience has been quite favorable, and I look forward to trying it on better hardware. If I experience any major issues like that which caused me to leave Ubuntu in the first place, I will post an update.
