What's the difference between Xubuntu and Ubuntu?

[Steve Lamb]

Michael Haney wrote:
> Then why do XFCE and Gnome look so much alike?  I was always told it
> was a fork of Gnome.

    Because they don't?  Are you judging by xfce-desktop in Ubuntu or a base
XFCE install?  Compare these two screenshots.  The first is from Fedora.  I
was looking for a screenshot of a recent Debian release to compare to Ibex but
oh well, this'll do. Specifically note the panel along the top bottom.

http://www.thecodingstudio.com/opensource/linux/screenshots/index.php?linux_distribution_sm=Fedora%208%20Xfce%20Spin

    Now look a at this screenshot and the same panels top and bottom.

http://www.thecodingstudio.com/opensource/linux/screenshots/index.php?linux_distribution_sm=Xubuntu%208.10%20Intrepid%20Ibex

    The first screenshot is pure XFCE.  The second which is of Xubuntu Ibex
clearly has the GNome top panel with XFCE's top panel moved to the bottom.
Compare both of those two this which is GNome...

http://www.thecodingstudio.com/opensource/linux/screenshots/index.php?linux_distribution_sm=Ubuntu%208.10%20Intrepid%20Ibex

    ...and then this of stock XFCE one to the Fedora pic above...

http://www.xfce.org/images/about/screenshots/4.4-1.png

    ...and it is clear that Xubuntu is not stock XFCE.

>   Even those in my Ubuntu Users Group said it was.

    Sadly, not all people who attend User Groups know what's what about
everything.  Wikipedia provides a good history of XFCE's development.  You'll
note at no time does it mention merging with GNome; only adopting GTK as its
toolkit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xfce

    And if you mistrust Wikipedia there's always XFCE's own site where there
is one instance of "gnome" listed and it is optional.

http://www.xfce.org/documentation/requirements

> And yes Gnome did look like KDE long ago.  It had a menu button with
> the  famous Gnome foot print symbol on it and worked like the KDE
> application menu does today.  This was over 10 years ago on a copy of
> Red Hat and Mandrake I was trying out in the 90's.

    Which isn't to say it was a clone of KDE.  You might have a case if there
were no other OSes which had a menu in the lower left from which one started
programs.

http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/win95
http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/qnx621
http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/cde15solaris9

    If we remove the notion of "lower left" but retain a menu from which one
starts applications we can include about 3-4 more.  It was, and remains, a
fairly common UI element.