It seems that the Unity, the new default window manager for Ubuntu, displeasing many walks. Soon after the report that Linux Mint will continue with GNOME by default, now is the time to inform you that Ubuntu Studio will also leave the side of Unity, using XFCE instead.
Interface standard XFCE
The official announcement was made on the mailing list ubuntu-studio-users, as follows (free translation):
After much discussion and investigation, the Ubuntu Studio team decided to reorganize the project based on XFCE. The team simply feel that the Unity and GNOME-Shell does not serve our target audience or desired workflow.
We will be working on a new custom UI that will use the Avant Window Navigator on XFCE. As always, new gear and packages will also be introduced.
We will also work to ensure a smooth transition can take place for current users of GNOME.
Ubuntu Studio, a variant of Ubuntu aimed exclusively for creation of multimedia files (with different programs for editing images, videos, music and so on) had already changed the version 4.11 to load the classic manager (GNOME 2) instead of Unity but the news that this option would no longer be available by default in Ubuntu 11:10 forced the development team to decide to return.
The team also thought about using the GNOME 3, but fell into the same problem of Unity: an interface outside the standards of a "desktop" common and very radical changes. So they decided to go XFCE window manager and a simple, lightweight facing machines with few resources and they like the GNOME 2 also uses the GTK + libraries for developing graphical user interface.
It costs nothing to remember, KDE has already passed through the same problems when they promoted a radical change with the release of version 4 of the window manager. I even ended up switching to GNOME, because it is a simpler interface (in season). It now remains how Canonical will react to all these problems of acceptance of Unity. Big changes may roll in 11:10?
To learn more about XFCE, visit the project site. The most current version of Ubuntu Studio can be downloaded in the download area of the project.
