Fluxbuntu: An Early Review

I've been using the Fluxbuntu Release Candidate for the past week on an old IBM 240 Thinkpad. My system has a 366Mhz Intel and an upgraded 196MB of RAM. The Fluxbuntu distribution aims to be a way to get the user-friendliness of Ubuntu, but runs lighter by using the Fluxbox Window Manager and a selectively picked default package list. Before listing my complaints, here are some things that Fluxbuntu does fairly well or as promised:

* The install process was straight forward and easy
* Relative to Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, Fluxbuntu did load to a desktop in about half the time
* Once loaded, Fluxbox was both aesthetically pleasing and appeared to work without any lag on my system

Dislikes:

* Wireless internet is very problematic. This was something Gutsy Gibbon tried to fix in large, along with Madwifi's updated support. Fluxbuntu seems to have sacrificed this advancement in wireless support and also provides ndiswrapper driver support by default, which in my opinion is a hack not a solution.

* Fluxbox is an elegant, light window manager. However, figuring out how to display options such as battery life can be quite a hassle for someone who doesn't know how to write their own scripts.

I recommend Fluxbuntu if you have a system slightly more powerful than mine, and if you're willing to take the real time it will require to get your wireless up and running and the display to have the information you need. This will require adding other repositories, and knowing where to look for what you need. I'd say pick up this distribution after one or two revisions.