Bridge Linux 2012.12 Review: Arch Linux a bit simplified

I haven't tried out Arch Linux yet but I plan to do so next year. Mostly my experience is concentrated on Ubuntu, Fedora and their derivatives. Now with every passing release all these distributions are getting heavier and resource consuming. Puppy is a definite saving grace, no doubt. But, as an user I want to create my own lightweight all purpose operating system using Arch. Further, the rolling release of Arch is a definite advantage, once you set your system, you don't need to re-install every alternate year.

KDE Bridge Linux 2012.12

Bridge Linux is kind of an intermediate step between Arch and Ubuntu. It provides all the resource friendliness that Arch is characterized by and in addition provides an out of the box system with most of the things like soundcard, touchpad, graphic display, a desktop environment, etc. configured to save your time and energy. 

LXDE Bridge Linux 2012.12

XFCE Bridge Linux 2012.12

Bridge Linux has a release every four months and for December 2012, it had to offer four flavors - Gnome 3.6, KDE 4.9.3, XFCE 4.10 and LXDE. I downloaded 32 bit versions of all four but could run only three - the Gnome 3.6 won't boot to a GUI and failed every time I tried. For the rest three, I live-boot all of them on my Asus K54C with 2.4 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM. I installed only the XFCE version on my system to try it out.

Live-Boot
Why I kept this separate section unlike my other reviews? Because a live-boot of Arch Linux runs into all kinds of trouble, if you use Unetbootin. I tried quite a few but none of them would work. So, I started my Windows 7 OS after quite a few months and installed Universal USB installer but that too failed! Finally after a brief search, I got reference of Linux Live installer for Windows OS and it worked! Though the interface is not simple and it may start downloading virtualbox, but I found it works for Arch. Bridge was not one of the specified distros in its list, however, given it works for Arch Linux, it worked for Bridge Linux as well. I created live boot of all the four ISOs that I downloaded.

Comparison

Parameters	Bridge KDE	Bridge XFCE	Bridge LXDE
ISO size	1 GB	696 MB	547 MB
Linux kernel	Linux 3.6.7-1-ARCH
Desktop	KDE 4.9.3	XFCE 4.10	LXDE
File Manager	Dolphin 2.1	Thunar 1.4.0	PCManFM 1.1.0
CPU Usage	2-10%	2-5%	1-3%
RAM Usage	330 MB	130 MB	80 MB
Installation	30 min	30 min	30 min
Programs – Internet	Chromium, Kopete, Bittorrent client, Kmail, Internet Dial up tool	Chromium, Thunderbird 17, Transmission	Chromium, Transmission
Programs – Multimedia	Amarok, Dragon Player, Kmix	AudioMixer, DeaDBeef, Xfburn	Exaile, Gnome Mplayer, Xfburn
Programs – Office	Complete LibreOffice 3.6 suite, Okular	Abiword, Gnumeric, Dictionary
Programs – Graphics	GIMP 2.8, Gwenview, Ksnapshot	GIMP 2.8, Shotwell	Imageviewer
Programs – Others	Qtdesigner, Archiving tool, Nepomuk backup, Kate, Kwrite	Archive manager, bulk rename, calculator, Leafpad, Screenshot	Archive manager, calculator, Leafpad
Wifi detection	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate

LXDE version is the lightest but thin on application as well. KDE version is the most complete with KDE centric applications and Chromium browser. In fact, all Bridge Linux versions have Chromium as the main browser.

All three of them boot pretty quickly and are very smooth to use. Given there is no package manager (pacman) on live-boot, user experience is pretty limited. Even flashplugin is not by default, neither multimedia codecs - so, the best option with bridge is to install and then try it out.

From Bridge Linux 2012.12

One thing about the KDE distro that surprised me, is there are no Restart or Shut down buttons. It has only options for logging out or locking the screen! A bit amusing, how am I supposed to shut the system down?

Luckily XFCE and LXDE editions had the conventional options of restart and/or shut down. XFCE is my preferred desktop these days and hence, to further check the OS, I installed XFCE version on an 8-GB partition.

Installation
Installation is simple, though not as simple as a Ubuntu or Linux Mint. It will ask for Language, Location, disc to partition (create two partitions - one for boot and another for swap, else things may not work as you desired), target for installation, installation of grub and finally configuring root and user. It took me about 30 min. to complete the installation without any major/minor hiccups.

Post-installation
After installation, I ran the post installation script and it downloaded pacman, plus updated the OS. However, I didn't find any pacman GUI and so, resorted to terminal to download my favorite applications. Arch forums and documents really helped me for the same. You can download all the desired applications, Adobe flashplugin, etc. using Pacman via terminal. I tried downloading the pacman GUI but none of the packages given here could be downloaded.

From Bridge Linux 2012.12

From Bridge Linux 2012.12

However, for experienced Linux users, terminal is not an issue. I downloaded VLC, codecs, Adobe flashpluginInkscape, Teamspeak, Skype 4.1, Quastrocam, etc. from the repos. All of them worked with my hardware. Linux kernel, desktop environments and applications are all latest and up to date, no complains there.

From Bridge Linux 2012.12

CPU and RAM Usage
The table in the comparison section already highlights that LXDE is the lightest and KDE the heaviest of the versions. Presumably, Arch Linux is supposed to be among the lightest Linux around. If I take the KDE 4.9 version and compare to the 32-bit operating systems that I used in 2012, definitely XFCE and LXDE versions score above the rest in terms of low RAM and CPU usage.

RAM Usage (32-bit)	KDE 4.9	XFCE 4.10	LXDE
Bridge Linux	330 MB	130 MB	80 MB
Ubuntu 12.10	300 MB	160 MB	134 MB
Linux Mint 13	300 MB	160 MB	-
Manjaro 0.8.2	440 MB	160 MB	-
OpenSUSE 12.2	340 MB	-	-
Sabayon 10	270 MB	-	-
Linux Lite 1.0.0	-	140 MB	-
ROSA 2012	-	-	122 MB
Zorin Lite 6.1	-	-	130 MB
Peppermint 3	-	-	135 MB

CPU Usage (32-bit)	KDE 4.9	XFCE 4.10	LXDE
Bridge Linux	2-10%	2-5%	1-3%
Ubuntu	2-10%	1-5%	1-5%
Linux Mint	2-10%	1-5%	-
Manjaro 0.8.2	5-7%	0-8%	-
OpenSUSE 12.2	1-5%	-	-
Sabayon 10	5-10%	-	-
Linux Lite 1.0.0	-	1-5%	-
ROSA 2012	-	-	1-10%
Zorin Lite 6.1	-	-	5-8%
Peppermint 3	-	-	1-5%

LXDE is surprisingly low (80 MB), most of LXDE distros I used consumed about 120-130 MB to load desktop with task manager running. KDE too is at par with other operating systems, if not lower.

From Bridge Linux 2012.12

From Bridge Linux 2012.12

From Bridge Linux 2012.12

Overall
I definitely recommend the XFCE and LXDE versions. Both of them are resource friendly and customizable. I really liked the KDE version, KDE 4.9 looks damn smashing but where the hell restart/shut down buttons go? Else, it is recommended. Gnome 3.6 version didn't work for me and hence, not recommended from my side. From both out-of-the-box applications and resource friendliness point of view, XFCE version seems to the most balanced and best of the lot.

The heading of the article says a bit simplified because even Bridge doesn't simplify Arch enough for a newbie and it takes a bit of Linux knowledge to get going on bridge. Manjaro is better for a newbie. However, for an experienced user, I would safely recommend Bridge over Manjaro for being a lighter distro. Manjaro seems to be a bit heavy for an Arch distro!

All in all, I am quite contented with both XFCE and LXDE versions and will use XFCE installation as the main distro in one of the machines I have. It is damn good!

You can download Bridge Linux from here.

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Linux Lite 1.0.0 Review: A good beginning!

Advent of Ubuntu actually spurned up quite a few Linux distro releases, giving users plenty of options as well as some very interesting flavors to play with. For example, you think Unity is buggy, you can either try out gnome fallback or have all the goodness of Ubuntu and lightness of XFCE or LXDE in Xubuntu or Lubuntu. A cross with E17 and you have a Bodhi! And who can forget Linux Mint - right now the God of Linux!

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

The latest entrant in the Ubuntu derived distro series, is Linux Lite 1.0.0, with their (possibly) first release. It is derived from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and has 5 years of long term support. Their mandate is to provide easy Linux solution to new switchers and they have really an interesting flavor to offer - XFCE 4.8 with PCManFM 0.9.10 and a host of useful applications. The developers provide Windows XP kind of settings. The distro is targeted towards new Linux users to showcase how simple Linux can be and hence, choosing Windows XP or 7 kind of desktop is understandable. XFCE is quite flexible and you can make it look like anything you want to - just like Gnome2.

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

As you note, the XFCE is not the latest available version, nor the file manager. However, the users can actually add the Ubuntu 12.10 ppa's and download XFCE 4.10 and PCManFM 1.0.1. But, these are really minor issues, and except a serious Linux enthusiast, it won't matter to any user even if their desktop manager is not the latest one.

I  did a live boot of the 916 MB ISO (32-bit) as well as installed it in my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 GHz Intel 2nd Gen Ci3 processor and 2 GB DDR3 RAM. Live-boot landed me to a user name and password screen - the release announcement came to my rescue. User name is root and no password! I guess the developers could have avoided the requirement of root login at live boot.

Like any other Ubuntu distro, it detected my LAN and Wifi settings without any issue. Sound card and other drivers were detected accurately. It booted up nicely to a black Linux Lite desktop. I must say, I have used PCManFM in Lubuntu as well, but it never looked nicer than Linux Lite - awesome finishing! Further, Linux Lite has some really good looking wallpapers to offer as well.

Applications

In general, I see some very useful applications offered by Linux Lite: GIMP 2.8 for image editing, VLC 2.0.3 for video playback, Firefox 16 for web browsing, Thunderbird 16 email client, mumble voice chat, xchat, etc. For office, only LibreOffice Writer and Calc are present, that too of 3.5.4.2 build. Complete LibreOffice suite could have been provided and I had expected LibreOffice 3.6!

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

For PDF files, PDF viewer is there which is good news. Leafpad is the default notepad application here. Further, to simplify, developers have provided some direct download and install links for utility softwares like wine, torrent, file and folder search, IM, virtualbox, restricted codecs, video editing software, etc. Clicking any of the links would take you to the terminal and ask for your password and permission to install the software. From the instant messenger icon, I successfully downloaded and installed Pidgin. In essence, definitely it simplifies life by not having to write a command at the terminal, for the newbies!

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

Further, settings manager gives an unified view of all the setting changes commonly possible and would help new users.

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

One thing surprised me, there is no separate music player, neither in the multimedia section, nor in the install application list! Is it deliberate, by choice?

Second, synaptic is the only way to install/uninstall software. It may be really difficult for any new Linux user to use synaptic and here an interface like Ubuntu Software center would have really helped. Point to note possibly for the next release!

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

Third, a lot of the users who use systems for production purpose, requires LibreOffice Impress in addition to Writer and Calc. Please include it in your default application list. Else, please include Impress link to the Install additional software list to make life easy for new users.

Else, the out-of-the-box application list is decent with Java support and Adobe Flash Plugin 11 by default. Further, VLC is there and I could play a movie or two and watch youtube videos in Firefox immediately after installation.

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

Installation

It took me flat 15 minutes to install. Process and questions asked are typical of any Ubuntu distro, mostly centered around language preferred, keyboard language, where I want to install, use entire disk or I would like to partition, my location and time zone, etc. I downloaded the third party codecs and updates as well. Overall, it took me 15 minutes - half the time of Ubuntu itself! Commendable!

CPU and RAM Usage

Given the distro has a lightweight desktop manager, XFCE and a lightweight file manager, CPU and RAM utilization are on the lower side - 1-5% and 130-140 MB. It offers good multi-tasking options even at low spec machines. With Firefox running an youtube video, a writer and a calc file open along with two task managers (yes, it has two system monitoring options!), I could see about 22% CPU and about 260 MB RAM usage. Quite impressive indeed.

From Linux Lite 1.0.0

Is it lighter than Xubuntu 12.04 or Lubuntu 12.04?

On the same machine, I recorded the results for both Lubuntu and Xubuntu. Definitely lighter than Xubuntu 12.04 but not lighter than Lubuntu 12.04 or 12.10.

Overall

In overall, Linux Lite 1.0.0 really holds promise. Definitely it is a lightweight distro offering interesting ensemble of applications. Desktop looks similar to XP or Windows7 which will help new switchers to get adjusted to it easily. Ubuntu with Unity may be a little alien to them, agreed. However, there are some rough edges as well like no separate music player, no software center for easy download or uninstall of applications, etc. Synaptic is not really ideal for Linux Lite's purpose and may easily break the system if users unintentionally delete critical files. The developers got somethings really right like low resource usage, easy and fast installation, etc. but there are development areas as well.

On ease of use, I used it for a 3-4 days and Linux Lite is really smooth to use. It feels very light and anyone familiar with Ubuntu, can use it without any hassle. Definitely worth recommending not only for new users but even for experienced Linux users.

You can view the release announcement and download link here.

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Ubuntu 12.10 Vs Kubuntu 12.10 Vs Xubuntu 12.10 Vs Lubuntu 12.10: A comparison

Yesterday I succeeded in downloading all four of these distros - Big daddy Ubuntu and its progenies Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu. I did a live boot of all 4 on my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 GHz Intel 2nd Gen Ci3 processor and 2 GB DDR3 RAM and later installed on the same, one after another to check out the performances, applications and other features associated with each one of these operating systems.

From Ubuntu 12.10 Comparison

 I downloaded 32 bit ISO for each one of these distros from the respective sites. All are compatible to Unetbootin and hence, preparing live usb wasn't an issue. For installation I preferred the full installation mode with internet on and in process downloading updates as well as multimedia codecs. Hence, each installation took about half an hour to get started for the review and comparison.

From Ubuntu 12.10 Comparison

Comparison

Parameters	Ubuntu 12.10	Kubuntu 12.10	Xubuntu 12.10	Lubuntu 12.10
Size of ISO	790 MB	999.6 MB	727 MB	726 MB
Booting time (post installation)	9 sec	10 sec	8 sec	8 sec
Desktop	Unity with Gnome 3.6	KDE 4.9.2	XFCE 4.10	LXDE
Linux kernel	3.5.0-17	3.5.0-17	3.5.0-17	3.5.0-17
CPU usage (live boot)	20-30%	2-6%	1-5%	1-5%
RAM usage (live boot)	456 MB	270 MB	180 MB	134 MB
CPU Usage (post installation)	1-10%	2-10%	1-5%	0-5%
RAM usage (post installation)	412 MB	300 MB	160 MB	123 MB
Installation time (with 1 MBPS connection)	30 min.	30 min.	30 min.	30 min.
Wifi detection	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate
Touchpad detection	Works by default	Works by default	Works by default	Works by default
Ease of use	A bit on the slower side	Works well on the system	Really smooth to use	Really smooth to use
Eye candy factor	Looks awesome!	Plasma interface looks good	Interface is brighter and looks better than ever	Interface looks more or less the same, a bit bland
Repository	Ubuntu Software Center 5.4.1.2	Muon Package Manager 1.4.1	Ubuntu Software Center 5.4.1.2	Lubuntu Software Center
File Manager	Nautilus 3.4.2	Dolphin 2.1	Thunar 1.4	PCManFM 1.0.1
Stability	Hanged while playing video in Gnome MPlayer	CPU utilization 100% while playing video in Dragon Player; but didn't hang	20% CPU utilization while playing video in VLC	14% CPU usage while playing video in Gnome MPlayer

I'll cover each distro in their respective reviews. 

• Review of Ubuntu 12.10 and comparison with 12.04.1 LTS
• Review of Kubuntu 12.10 and comparison with 12.04.1 LTS
• Review of Xubuntu 12.10 and comparison with 12.04.1 LTS
• Review of Lubuntu 12.10 and comparison with 12.04  

Results
 
In nutshell, I see all the 4 Ubuntu distros have the latest softwares to offer along with the most up-to-date Linux kernel and desktop shell. Like last time, Lubuntu and Xubuntu performs way better than Ubuntu or Kubuntu. However, look-wise Lubuntu is more on the blander side. If you are in a habit of flaunting eye candy Linux desktops to friends and buddies, perhaps Lubuntu is not for you. However, those who appreciate productivity over anything else, an LXDE Linux OS is perhaps better suited to them.

From Ubuntu 12.10 Comparison

Xubuntu, however, has come a long way from being bland looking distro. Now it is shinier and looks better than other Xubuntu predecessors. Resource consumption-wise, it is just behind Lubuntu. Both desktop and applications contained are the cutting edge ones.

From Ubuntu 12.10 Comparison

Conclusion

 Kubuntu lies somewhere intermediate between Xubuntu/Lubuntu and Ubuntu. It has the updated KDE 4.9.2 desktop. I used it for sometime, it feels smoother to use than 12.04. Though CPU utilization fluctuates and often touches 100% but it never hangs. Even while playing a movie, though CPU utilization was near 100%, it kept on running and I did a small amount of multi-tasking as well.

Coming on to Ubuntu 12.10. I tried it on Core i3 laptop with 2 GB RAM and it hanged while playing a movie! I felt it is on the slower side and especially if you are using Ubuntu after using a Lubuntu/Xubuntu, you can feel the pain much more. However, looks wise, Ubuntu is miles ahead of the rest three. Unity is smoother to use and Gnome shell is 3.6. Further, Amazon and Ubuntu music are added plus point. Initially, I thought they would be apps, but both open in Firefox upon clicking! Even I could set Facebook and Twitter on the left hand side Unity bar for quicker access. It is like creating bookmarks to open in Firefox and nothing else.

So, if you have a really high end laptop, then only think of installing Ubuntu. Otherwise go with my personal favorite Xubuntu or Lubuntu! In next few articles, I'll take up each individual distros and compare them with the last release 12.04.

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How to install Android 4.0 ICS in Virtualbox? Step by step installation guide

Finally day before yesterday I managed to install Android ICS with active ethernet and functional play store inside Virtualbox (which is inside Ubuntu 12.04). It took me 3-4 attempts with different ISOs. And to my rescue came the blog Android x86. I am heavily indebted to it, though I tweaked a few things here and there to make it work for me.

From Android 4.0 ICS

To begin, you need to download four things:

1. Virtualbox itself. You can get it from Ubuntu software center or from Virtualbox website. I have 4.1.18 for Linux, you can download for windows or mac as well, depending on your system. And install it.

2. Download the latest Android 4.0 version from Buil Droid. It is the OS which we'll be loading in virtualbox, 109.1 MB in size.

3. Android SDK files - the default android installed without any Play Store or apps. To install apps, you need it installed in your system. You can download it from here. Step by step instructions to install are given in the site itself.

4. Apps by by314 from this deposit files. It has some cool app collection like gmail, google maps, play store, etc. which we'll install in the vanilla android OS which we downloaded in couple of steps before.

Step 1: Once virtualbox is installed and Ova file from Buil Droid is downloaded, double click on the Android-4.0.3_bd2a.ova file. Automatically, it will install itself in virtualbox with predefined settings.

From Android 4.0 ICS

Click import and you'll see Android-4.0.3-bd2 in virtualbox.

From Android 4.0 ICS

Select it and press Enter, Android ICS will start and show you the grub.

From Android 4.0 ICS

Continue with the second option selected and it will boot Android. You'll see the default Android screen, like the one given below (this is after I changed the black-blue wallpaper and installed a few apps).

From Android 4.0 ICS

Open browser, internet should work. If it doesn't, go to virtualbox, select Android 4.0.3 bd2, click setting -> Network -> select Bridged Adapter as Attached to and wlan0 (if wifi) or eth0 (if your default system internet is through lan cord). Again restart Andriod, internet should work.

From Android 4.0 ICS

It will vanilla Android. In step 2, we'll install some cool apps along with market/play store. For that, go to Setting -> check about tablet to confirm you've Anroid 4.0.3 and finally go to Developer options -> check USB debugging for the outside system to connect to the Android inside virtualbox.

From Android 4.0 ICS

From Android 4.0 ICS

Step 2: In step 2, unzip (for Linux) install Android SDK to your linux or windows from the file you downloaded earlier. Installation will take a bit of time depending on internet connection. Follow the default instruction link provided in the Android SDK site.

Go inside Android-sdk-linux -> tools folder (for Ubuntu, Windows 7 one is easy, one simple .exe file), and click on Andriod.

From Android 4.0 ICS

From Android 4.0 ICS

Once installed, unzip the apps you had downloaded earlier. It has a folder named gapps_buildroid_modby314 inside. I purposively unzipped it inside ./Home/Arindam/Downloads so that I can access it easily via terminal.

Now open a terminal. Locate the adb file in the Android-sdk-linux -> platform_tools directory.

From Android 4.0 ICS

Another thing which is required is the IP of the Android distro. This is required as well are going to launch a FTP service to push the apps inside Android. I had the advantage of having scores of Linux distros inside my virtualbox and I checked ip configuration on one of them & found it be 192.168.1.4. So, I tried 192.168.1.5 onwards (my actual system has 192.168.1.3) and 192.168.1.6 worked.

To check if it is working, I opened browser inside Android OS running and typed in my system Linux (which is the main OS in my computer) terminal:
arindam@arindam-K55VM:~$ /home/arindam/Downloads/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools/adb connect 192.168.1.6
and it showed "connected to 192.168.1.4:5555". If it is unable to connect, it will show the same. Kind of trial and error method, but I didn't find any other method that worked for me.

Once you're able to connect, type
arindam@arindam-K55VM:~$ /home/arindam/Downloads/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools/adb remount

followed by
arindam@arindam-K55VM:~$ cd ./Downloads/gapps_buildroid_modby314

to move to the directory where your apps are.

And then we'll start pushing the apps by
arindam@arindam-K55VM:~/Downloads/gapps_buildroid_modby314$ /home/arindam/Downloads/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools/adb push system /system/

You'll see something of a screen below:

From Android 4.0 ICS

Once complete you'll see all the applications that we pushed inside Andriod. Close the browser that you had opened earlier and check the apps installed, you'll see gmail, playstore, maps, gtalk, etc.

From Android 4.0 ICS

From Android 4.0 ICS

It has superuser & terminal emulator as well. I installed GO Launcher EX from Play Store as well along with other free apps.

From Android 4.0 ICS

From Android 4.0 ICS

From Android 4.0 ICS

However, still this installation has quite a few limitations, like Facebook apk doesn't work with it, neither temple run. I'll do some research on how to make these fun apps work with the laptop installation; if I find something useful, I'll document it in my blog.

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Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal Alpha 3 Review: Anticipating more cutting edge apps

26th July, 2012, exactly one month after Alpha 2 release, Kate Stewart has announced the release of Alpha 3 of Ubuntu 12.10. Being an avid follower of Ubuntu, I downloaded the 765 MB ISO from the Ubuntu cdimage site. Booting up was quick in VirtualBox and I was greeted with the familiar Unity interface.

From Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 3 Screenshots

From Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 3 Screenshots

Applications

Application-wise, there is not much change from Ubuntu Precise, only I see the very latest versions of apps like Firefox and Thunderbird. Possibly, by the final release, we'll see Firefox 15. As usual, the ensemble of apps is comprehensive and rich. However, some of my favorite apps like VLC, Adobe flash support, multimedia codecs, etc. are still not in-built. During installation flash and codecs are downloaded whereas you can install Firefox from Ubuntu repository. Linux kernel is also updated to 3.5.0.6 and Gnome to 3.5.4. Final release possibly will have Gnome 3.6.

From Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 3 Screenshots

From Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 3 Screenshots

From Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 3 Screenshots

From Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 3 Screenshots

CPU and RAM usage

In Alpha 2, I found RAM usage to be ~ 446 MB. It has significantly come down to 318 MB in Alpha 3, under identical conditions with only System monitor running. Definitely developers worked on that area. CPU usage is around 8-10% which is decent for a comprehensive OS like Ubuntu. Precise uses ~300 MB under identical conditions.

From Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 3 Screenshots

Overall
I see a lot of progress from Alpha 2 to Alpha 3. Definitely, by October we'll see a further polished and refined distro with better performance from Unity. Would I replace Precise with Quantal? I am not sure. At this point, I'll go for 5 year support as upgrading doesn't happen with Ubuntu and reinstalling the whole system means a lot of task for me. For now I'll stick with Pear Linux 5 (forked from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS).

Slide show of Ubuntu Quantal from my Picasa album.

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