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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Vinzenz Vietzke of TUXEDO Computers announced today that the German electronics manufacturer, which is known for selling laptops and desktop computers that ship pre-loaded with Linux, created their own distro.
The news comes just a week after System76 computer reseller announced Pop!_OS as their own GNU/Linux distribution based on Ubuntu and the GNOME desktop environment, and it now looks like TUXEDO Computers follow suit and announce TUXEDO Xubuntu, their own Xubuntu-based distro, which will power all of their computers in the near future.
"We have been working on this project for several months. We have been thinking about the usability of the desktop, have included user feedback in our considerations and made some surveys on desktop usage," says Vinzenz Vietzke. "The result of our research, surveys and countless tests is now that we have chosen Xfce based on Ubuntu."
(Score: 1) by zoward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @03:00PM (4 children)
This doesn't do wonders for my confidence that the major linux distros are going to work OOB with their hardware. I always thought that was the reason why people would pay extra for hardware from small linux specialty vendors, versus buying a windows-based machine known to work with linux hardware (e.g., thinkpads). Would linux geeks pay extra to buy a machine like this and actually leave the provided vendor-specific distro on it? I don't see it happening, for Tuxedo, System76 or any other vendor.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 05 2017, @03:26PM (1 child)
Buying a machine like this will *almost* certainly mean that you can run other distros on it. They're using Ubuntu. Just go to the Ubuntu repository and/or the special repository where the drivers are found and download. Swap out hard drive, install Suse, Deb, or whatever. You find that there is no driver for one bit of hardware or another, install the driver you already downloaded with Alien or such. If that doesn't work so well, look for source, and compile it on your own machine with -native flag.
Okay, there will probably be edge cases, depending on a metric ton of variables. So, contact the vendor directly, tell them you need a driver for Favorite Linux. They've already done all the work by making the driver work - all they need do is repackage it for Favorite.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday July 05 2017, @10:31PM
Exactly. The fact that SOMEBODY, anybody, SPEC'ed a machin that works with any curent distro makes it it a good choice for any other.
So other than THAT, I don't see anything they have to offer here.
I'm sure both of these two companies will hang a theme and a few web links on an otherwise stock ubuntu / gnome / xfce package and try to make it something unique.
Does the world need yet another Ubunto clone? Is there any point in yet another Gnome re-packaging? And Isn't XFCE pretty much out-slimmed by LXDE and soon LXQt?
(All else being equal, XFCE these days uses about 100 meg less memory than your typical KDE/Plasma5 install. Its not any faster in use, but it is faster to start up. Just install ANYBODY's LXDE to be astounded how fast Linux can be on modest hardware).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @04:07PM (1 child)
a custom distro effort is not really aimed at "linux geeks". you think only "linux geeks" use linux? every family member, friend, and customer that i help with computers runs various distros. not a damn one of them is a linux geek. i'm outnumbered 20:1 by non geeks.
I suspect a custom distro effort of a hardware vendor is to make their offering more attractive to their customers which are largely normal people who are after a little freedom/security but aren't trying to be the next rms/linus. That's why they are bothering to customize a desktop environment, the whole focus on what desktop environment they chose, etc. It's the DE they figured would be easiest to customize/deal with and would run the most efficiently on their hardware.
I've really been waiting on someone to do something with xfce for a long time. i've often wished i had the time to gain the skill to heavily customize xfce because i think it has a lot of potential for this type of situation. good luck to tuxedo and i hope they have success with this.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday July 05 2017, @10:34PM
2000 to one. FIFY.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.