> which is why the whole distro zoo and "stick it to the man" theatre has always been a nightmare.
The real obnoxiousness is that Ubuntu doesn't keep these desktop and otherwise specialized variants partially in-house like they once did. It isn't like they don't have the money or the staff. It's just not part of their world takeover plan anymore; no deviation allowed.
Just get away from Ubuntu, install Debian, and choose XFCE when installing. Please.
> It's just not part of their world takeover plan anymore
That's because they don't have a world takeover plan anymore. That plan failed, so they came up with other ones (mobile! Subscriptions!) and those failed too - so now they're just trying to survive.
I honestly prefer for Ubuntu to be just another Linux player doing what most Linux players do (i.e. looking after n.1 and focusing on internal consistency), rather than their original borg-like form that tried to co-opt the entire ecosystem. As much as I enjoy a reliable Debian-like infrastructure everywhere, there is value in the fundamental diversity of distros focused on different ways to "do Linux".
On the other hand, there are far few developers working on XFCE compared to desktop environments like KDE or gnome. The more obscure places might be better places to hide malware, nobody would notice, unlike in XUbuntu.
The real obnoxiousness is that Ubuntu doesn't keep these desktop and otherwise specialized variants partially in-house like they once did. It isn't like they don't have the money or the staff. It's just not part of their world takeover plan anymore; no deviation allowed.
Just get away from Ubuntu, install Debian, and choose XFCE when installing. Please.