Ubuntu 15.10
This month’s LinuxFormat DVD is a celebration of the new Ubuntu release, with several variations for you to try. First on the boot menu is one of our multi-desktop remixes, where you can switch between Unity desktop, LXDE, MATE and Xfce.
LXDE and XFCE are both lightweight desktops which good for older hardware, or for those that want to use most of their computers resources for running applications rather than the desktop. Mate is inspired by the Gnome 2 desktop and provides a more traditional interface but with modern enhancements. The DVD boots to Unity by default; to try one of the others log out, press the small Ubuntu logo at the right hand side of the login box to open a menu with various choices and login as the user ubuntu and a blank password. For LXDE and Xfce you should choose Lubuntu and Xubuntu respectively, these load the full Ubuntu experience on the corresponding desktop.
We had to change the way we created the desktop remix because of restrictions Ubuntu placed on remastering its disk images, so you cannot install from here, it will start the process then fail with an error. Either choose the install option from the boot menu or boot the standard desktop alternative and install from there. To get the extra desktops on your new installation, open the software manager and install one or more of lubuntu-desktop, mate-desktop-environment or xubuntu-desktop. These packages will each install all the files needed for their desktops. You may need to enable extra repositories (repos) to make them available, which is very simple. Run the Synaptic package manager, select the Settings > Repositories menu item and tick the box for ‘universe’. You may want to enable multiverse too while you are there. Close that window, hit ‘Reload’ and all the extra packages will be available to you.
One advantage of this method is that the original ISO image is untouched. That means anyone who wants a vanilla Ubuntu 15.10 experience can have it, the second option on the boot menu loads a standard Ubuntu Unity desktop that you can use or install. One small disadvantage of this approach is that loading the remix system seems slower than the old way, although this is only noticeable when booting from a slow DVD drive.