[clue] Future directions for Ubuntu Studio

[Lorin Ricker]

During my research prior to upgrading my Ubuntu Studio box to 10.4/LTS 
over this past weekend, I came across the following blog by Scott Lavender:

   "Confessions of a Ubuntu Studio Developer",
   http://dullass.blogspot.com/

His latest post, dated May 14, 2011, is entitled "Ubuntu Studio Moving 
to XFCE", and gives some compelling reasons why the Studio distro team 
has rejected Unity for this specific distro/purpose, and intends to make 
XFCE the default UI for 11.10 (Oneric Ocelot) and moving forward.

Scott's explanation and reasoning is compelling enough to make me stop 
my own upgrades on 10.4/LTS (I had originally planned to forge ahead to 
11.4/Natty), and instead wait for 11.10/OO (or later).

So far, the *only* things that have pleased me about 11.4/NN are:

   1) The improved, "it-just-works" nature of wireless connections
      (compared to previous, finicky releases in this regard).

   2) The move to LibreOffice, replacing OpenOffice.

Since my desktop Studio box doesn't use wireless, and I've been 
comfortable with OpenOffice for several years now, there's nothing which 
compels me to upgrade beyond 10.4/LTS-Studio, at least until future 
distro versions become attractive.

For whatever it's worth; may be academic to you if you don't have a 
Studio box.  But Scott's observations may be interesting to you 
regardless...

best regards,
   -- Lorin