Since I would like to have a complete system for developing Java application using Eclipse, I initially selected Debian. Anyway, Debian is not as good as I want. Since it should have the latest version of Xserver. Anyway, the default one in Debian is XFree86 but the world moved to X.Org for so long. Then I turned back to Ubuntu. Moreover, I selected Xubuntu because of it seems to have smaller memory footprint. So I install Xubuntu desktop with no doubt. Interestingly, it took me 2 GB for standard installation. I have to remove unused packages manually. Well, it was not easy to slim down so I reinstalled it with Xubuntu Alternative CD and Server profile. The server profile took me 485 MB, not bad. Then I have to install Xfce manually.

I found a good article to help installing Ubuntu on low memory systems. Below is my procedure.

1. Enable universe repository by uncommenting below lines in /etc/apt/sources.list

   deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe
   deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe
   

2. Update local cache

   sudo apt-get update
   

3. Install packages

   sudo apt-get install wdm x-window-system-core xfce4
   

4. During installation you will be prompted to confirm screen resolution.

5. Here we go! Now you may startx.

   startx
   

At this point, I have Xfce running on Xubuntu Server by 617 MB.

Tags: eclipse, ubuntu, xubuntu, xfce, x.org, xfree86