Xubuntu with a *pure* Debian Base (Part 4)

If you have followed parts 1-3, you will have an almost duplicate of Xubuntu 14.04, at least in terms of appearance, but your operating system will be sorely lacking graphical applications. So far I have mostly stuck to using the command line for downloading packages from the repositories via apt and elsewhere on the Net via wget, but it is probably time to get a web browser!

8. Applications


8.1 Web Browser

 The default browser in Xubuntu is Mozilla Firefox. For reasons I won't go too much into here (but you can read about here), Debian repackages and rebrands Firefox as Iceweasel. I can't say that I have ever spent much time with Iceweasel, but from what I understand it is 99% the same as Firefox, though some users have complained about compatibility with add-ons in Iceweasel.

To make matters more confusing, the version of Iceweasel you get depends on the repository you are using. As of writing, the current release of Mozilla Firefox is 30.0. The versions of Iceweasel available are:

  • Wheezy/stable = 24.6
  • Jessie/testing = 29.0.1
  • Sid/unstable = 30.0
So, if you are happy to install Iceweasel then go ahead and install via apt from whichever repository you are comfortable with. The current version in Jessie will take up approx 61.5 MB of hard disk space. Here are some alternative browsers and their relative sizes:

Mozilla Firefox = 78.9MB
Chromium = 151MB
Google Chrome (via Google's debian repository) = 183MB
Opera (via Opera's debian repository) = 68.1MB
Arora = 75.8MB
Dillo = 2,755KB
Epiphany = 206MB
Midori = 63.7MB
Qupzilla = 86.7MB

So as far as disk space is concerned, unless go for the ultra-light weight Dillo, IceWeasel or Firefox are pretty competitive.

8.1.1 Installing Firefox on Debian

In any case, you just might prefer the real thing, so to install Firefox on Debian, follow these instructions.
  1. Open a terminal and CD to your Download directory
  2. Since you don't have a web browser it isn't trivial to check the current version, but we can attempt to download the latest using wget:
    wget -r -l1 --no-parent -A.tar.bz2 https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest/linux-i686/en-US
  3. Of course you can alter en-US for your country's UTF code eg en-GB.
  4. This will create a nested directory starting with ftp.mozilla.org but at the end you will have the downloaded tarball.
  5. You can use Thunar to extract it or the command line:
    cd ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest/linux-i686/en-US/
    dir (to find full file name)
    tar xjf firefox-[version].tar.bz2 = 78.9MB
  6. Now as root move it to the /opt directory (the directory reserved for packages installed outside the distributions repositories):
    mv firefox /opt/firefox
  7. You can now safely delete the nested directory and tarball:
    cd ~/Downloads
    rm -r -d ftp.mozilla.org
  8. Set up shortcuts:
    1. Create a symbolic link in /usr/bin so that it can be found by the system:
      ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
    2. Test the link by typing firefox in the terminal and see if it launches.
    3. Create a .desktop file (launcher) so that it will be appear in the Whisker Menu. Use Mousepad or Nano as root:
      [Desktop Entry]
      Type=Application
      Name=Firefox Web Browser
      Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
      GenericName=Web Browser
      Exec=/opt/firefox/firefox
      Path=/opt/firefox
      Icon=/opt/firefox/browser/icons/mozicon128.png
      Terminal=false
      StartupNotify=true
      Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
    4. Save it in /usr/share/applications as firefox.desktop
    5. It should magically appear in your Whisker Menu now under the Internet category.
8.2 Other Applications

I listed in part 2 the default applications in Xubuntu. Now you are in control of what you install, you can leave ones out that you don't need, or replace others with lighter-weight varieties or your personal favorites. 

The table below lists initially the default application in Xubuntu and then alternatives. The entries in bold are the applications that I have installed on my test system and sizes given are approximate based on the order of installation which is alphabetically. Remember many Gnome apps and KDE apps also install the back-end desktop environment libraries and so require a larger download and take up more desk space. However, once installed, other similar apps may share libraries and the downloads may be smaller:


APPLICATION
XUBUNTU DEFAULT
ALTERNATIVES
Word Processor
abiword = 81.1MB
Ted = (+Libtff4 = 2520KB) = 10MB
Focuswriter = 35.4MB
Gwrite = 54.5MB
LibreOffice Writer = 367MB
Calligra Words = 407MB
WriteType = 130MB
GoogleDocs = 0
Apt command line tools
apt-transport-https, python-software-properties, software-properties-common = 3,168KB

Bluetooth GUI
blueman = 11.6MB

Graphical File Search
catfish = 2,583KB
gnome-search-tool = 3,695KB
recoll = 60.7MB
searchmonkey = 511KB
Keyboard Character Map
charactermap = gucharmap = 109MB (less if installed with Abiword)
charmap.app = 47.5MB
PDF Viewer
evince = 19.8MB
evince-gtk = 17.2MB
epdfview = install from wheezy = 673KB
xpdf = 4079KB
File archiver (zip/tar)
file-roller = 219MB
xarchiver is already installed and integrated into Thunar with thunar-acrhive-plugin
Fonts
fonts-liberation = 2178KB
Other fonts can be installed as req including:
ttf-mscorefonts-installer = ?
fonts-dejavu-extra = 6,701KB
fonts-opensymbol = 665KB
Adobe Flash Player
flashplugin-non-free = 3924KB
Gnash = 90.7MB (includes gstreamer plugins)
Google Chrome (flash built-in)
Games
games - gnome-mines (109MB), gnome-sudoku (113MB)  
Many of the gnome applications share dependencies. So if you install abiword and gucharmap, then these will be minute additions.
GUI for raising user privileges
gksu = 24.8MB
sudo = 2,608KB

Partition Editor
gparted = 12.8MB

Painting Application
gimp = 101MB
gnome-paint = 421KB
mtpaint = 1766KB
Krita = 466MB
imagemagick = 19.8MB
GUI for connecting to remote filesystems
gigolo = 1071KB
nautilus = 161MB
Music player
gmusicbrowser = 4466KB
Audacious = 18.5MB
VLC = 124MB
rhythmbox = 192MB
banshee = 231MB
clementine = 81.6MB
exaile = 54.3MB
lxmusic = 2374KB
xmms2 = 1752KB
Amarok = 410MB
Calculator
gnome-calculator = 111MB
galculator = 1397KB
Audio/video plugins
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good, gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio = 20.2MB
libdvdnav4 = 379KB
Non-free plugins: gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad, plugins-ugly  = 78.1MB
gnome-codec-insall = 45.3MB
Indicator applets
indicator-application, indicator-sound = N/A
Use notification-panel-plugin and volume-mixer-plugin for XFCE.
Libindicate?
GUI for changing system language
language-selector-gnome (from gnome-control-center) = 402MB
dpkg-reconfigure locales
Keyboard layout already included in XFCE Settings.
Screensaver GUI
light-locker-settings = N/A in Debian
Grab it from Ubuntu
XFCE Power Manager
Bug reporting
lintian = 14.9MB

Applications menu GUI editor
menulibre = 4171KB
alacarte = 327KB
Personal Information settings GUI
mugshot = 5120KB

Network Manager System tray applet
network-manager-gnome = 395MB
Wicd = 40.6MB
Onscreen Keyboard
onboard = N/A in Debian
Grab it from Ubuntu: requires virtkey and onboard. (optional: onboard-data)
florence = 1711KB
(Use florence --no-gnome --focus in lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf)
Media Player
parole  = 1151KB
Mplayer2 = 39.9MB
VLC = 124MB
XBMC = 120MB
Xine = 46.4MB
Totem = 275MB
Instant Messaging
pidgin = 118MB
emesene = 74.7MB
empathy = 360MB
Printer Support
xfprint4 - N/A in Jessie repos.
Can be installed from Wheezy = 4MB
System-config-printer = 42.8MB
Image/photo viewer
ristretto = 1280KB
gthumb = 192MB
shotwell = 74.5 MB
digikam = 603MB
eom (eye of mate) = 24.3MB
geeqie = 89.4MB
Network utilities
samba = 24.9MB

Screenshot
xfce4-screenshooter = 3043KB
Configure custom keyboard actions:
xfce4-screenshooter --fullscreen = Print
xfce4-screenshooter --window = SysRq
gnome-screenshot =1532MB
scrot = 940KB
Scanning
simple-scan = 1714KB
(x)sane (via GIMP) = 83.5MB
Software repository management
software-properties-gtk = 18.9MB

System sounds
sound-theme-freedesktop = 554KB

Spreadsheet
gnumeric = 167MB
LibreOffice Calc = 238MB
Google sheets = 0
Email client
Thunderbird = N/A download from Mozilla
(IceDove) = 57.7MB
Sylpheed = 14.4MB
Claws-mail = 19.9MB
Webmail = 0
Evolution = 214 MB
Bittorrent
transmission = 5195MB
bittorrent-gui = 32.1MB
bitstormlite = 229KB
Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center = N/A
Synaptic - already installed
gdebi = 2869KB (useful for manual installations of .deb packages)
Software update notifications
update-manager = N/A
gnome-package-kit = 133MB
update manually
Users and groups GUI
users and groups (gnome-system-tools) = 344 MB
Use CLI
Disc Burning
xfburn = 2628KB
Brasero = 119MB
k3b = 332MB
IRC
xchat = 7749KB
xchat-gnome = 15.6MB
XFCE Additional Plugins
thunar-media-tags-plugin = 629KB
xfce4-goodies = 20.9MB

xfce4-dict = 1114KB


xfce4-notes + plugin = 2394KB


xfswitch. If install from Debian it will be 505MB and install most of gnome-shell!
No point as in Debian it isn’t configured for light-locker
create a new panel launcher and point it to dm-tool switch-to-greeter.


xfce4-task-manager = 808KB





9. Final Tweaks


One of the nice things about Xubuntu is that a lot of the system configuration applications show up in the XFCE Settings Manager. You can do this too by editing as root the .desktop files (found at /usr/share/applications) for the relevant applications and adding the following:

X-XfceSettingsManagerHidden=true
Categories=XFCE;GTK;Settings;DesktopSettings;X-XFCE-SettingsDialog;X-XFCE-[and then one of the following additional categories] PersonalSettings | HardwareSettings | SystemSettings

If you don't add one of the final settings categories then the application will be listed under 'other' in the XFCE Settings Manager.

Here are my recommendations:
  • About Me (mugshot) - PersonalSettings
  • Audio Mixer - HardwareSettings
  • Bluetooth Manager - HardwareSettings
  • FlashPlayer - Other (no settings)
  • GParted - HardwareSettings
  • Onboard Settings - SystemSettings
  • Light-Locker Settings - PersonalSettings
  • Menu Editor - PersonalSettings
  • Print Settings - Hardware Settings
  • Synaptic - SystemSettings
  • Settings Editor - SystemSettings
  • Wicd - HardwareSettings

To prevent an icon from appearing altogether from the menu add 

NotShowIn=XFCE

For example, you might want to hide UXTerm and Xterm to leave just the XFCE Terminal visible.

Use the Preferred Applications tool to set the web browser and email client.

Finally, add your favourite applications in the Whisker Menu eg:
  • Web browser
  • Mail reader
  • File Manager
  • Word Processor
  • Spreadsheet program
  • IM Client
  • Music/Media Player
  • Software Center/Synaptic
  • Terminal Emulator
  • Help (create a launcher and point to https://wiki.debian.org/ 


TOTAL HARD DISK USAGE = 2.6GB
RAM USAGE AT XFCE DESKTOP WITH XFCE TERMINAL OPEN = 170MB*

 TOTAL HARD DISK USAGE IN XUBUNTU (all updates applied and old kernels removed) = 2.9GB
RAM USAGE IN XUBUNTU WITH XFCE TERMINAL OPEN = 205MB*

 *after a clean reboot.


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