Geubuntu 7.10 was released last Thursday and a couple of people asked me to take a look at it. As the distribution’s logo hints, it’s an Ubuntu derivative that uses Enlightenment E17 for the desktop environment. This release was the first I had heard of this distribution, but it turns out they had a release to coincide with Ubuntu 7.04 as well. At that time it shipped with two different themes on separate media, but this release they were combined into one – giving the user a chance to try them both without having to download two CD images. So, there’s our first improvement already.
That’s probably the only improvement I’ll be able to report as I didn’t test the first release. However, this release speaks for itself on its own. I tested Geubuntu 7.10 on my trusty HP Pavilion laptop and found a lot of nice things to like.
The first thing that might be counted as an improvement over Ubuntu is the performance increase. More so when installed but even when run as a live CD, Geubuntu is much faster than Ubuntu. It boots faster, applications open quicker, and behind the scene tasks seem to complete more briskly. I imagine most of the credit is due to using Enlightenment as the desktop. Enlightenment has a solid reputation as a lighter desktop with much better performance when compared to its KDE and GNOME counterparts, while still providing some eye-pleasing special effects.