After using Lubuntu for a while, I wanted a change. It was time to try a new Linux distro.

My criteria: something that is lightweight (still want to run it on the 12 GB SSD) but with just enough power for a friendlier user interface and room for customization. I considered Arch due to its massive fanbase and its endless customization options, but it felt like jumping into the deep end too soon. I chickened out and stuck with the Ubuntu family.

I decided to try Xubuntu, what seemed to be a more feature-filled version of Lubuntu, but not to the point of its popular brother Ubuntu.

So far, I've gotten pretty comfortable with Xubuntu, and even went ahead with making visual customizations. I spent several hours trying to find the perfect combo of XFCE themes, window managers, icons, cursors, wallpapers, and so on; opendesktop.org was very useful for this.

I also learned of a new word: ricing. According to /r/unixporn, it refers to customizing and making visual improvements to the desktop environment. It has its roots in modifying imported Asian cars, which is pretty interesting.

Here I used the command screenfetch to display stats about my Xubuntu customization, including my theme and font choices.

If you want to try it out on your environment, here is how you install it:

sudo apt install screenfetch

The results:

OS: Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
Kernel: x86_64 Linux 4.10.0-38-generic
Uptime: 1h 15m
Packages: 1657
Shell: bash 4.3.48
Resolution: 1920x1080
DE: XFCE
WM: Xfwm4
WM Theme: Numix
GTK Theme: Equilux [GTK2]
Icon Theme: plane-dark
Font: Noto Sans 9
CPU: Intel Core i3-5005U CPU @ 2GHz
GPU: Mesa DRI Intel(R) HD Graphics 5500 (Broadwell GT2) 
RAM: 2018MiB / 3855MiB