Voyager is a Xubuntu based distribution from France developed to make the user's time working on a computer a pleasant one, by making it a showcase of photography and graphic design and providing convenience tools to improve general usability. The developers achieved their goal, making Voyager, in my opinion, the best looking Xfce desktop distribution, if not the best overall. Some of the customizations include a pre-configured drop-down terminal, multi-tab terminal based system monitor, a second panel -- pre-configured to access its custom tools, a customized Firefox with almost twenty custom start pages, some with many convenient links -- although they need to be edited by non French users -- among others. But the most impressive of its custom features is one that addresses a shortcoming of Xfce, the optional ability to switch from an Xfce shell to a Gnome shell -- allowing a peek at all open windows and a way to switch to another virtual desktop -- in the running system without requiring the user to log out. If you already like the Xfce desktop or you appreciate photography and graphic design, and don't mind some French here and there, you should try this distribution.
Voyager builds on Xubuntu and Ubuntu's strength of a stable, reliable and easy to use system with a great infrastructure and a great ecosystem. The Xubuntu base uses the Xfce desktop, which uses relatively little memory and processor resources, the reason the developers chose it. There are other desktops that also use very little system resources but they don't have Xfce's modularity, leading to a system that is flexible in its configuration, and its customizability in appearance and modes of user interaction.
Voyager fixes the major flaw in Xubuntu and most distributions using the Xfce desktop which is that it is very plain, if not ugly, out of the box appearance. Many distributions also install by default very few of the GTK theming components that Xfce can use. Voyager provides six exclusive GTK styles, icons, and window decorations, the popular Numix style and window decorations, some fonts that work well with the selected themes, as well as some of the old and common GTK elements.
This video, produced by the Voyager developers, available on the Voyager Live website and posted by the developers on YouTube illustrates the attention to the aesthetic quality of Voyager.
and the convenience and usability features, as well as some of the installed programs.
Besides the basic theming elements there are:
Many users will appreciate that a dock has been provided by default, although I prefer the more powerful and configurable Cairo Dock to the Plank dock chosen by the developers. They may have opted for the Plank dock over Cairo Dock, which uses the most resources of any running process when there are no applications running, in their desire for creating as lightweight a system as possible.
Firefox, the default web browser in Voyager, has also been made more pleasant to use with the addition of 19 custom start pages some with very appealing art as backgrounds.
Not only does Voyager provide the elements to make Xfce's appearance very appealing, but provides some tools to manage these elements -- Voyager Box, Voyager Wall and Conky Control.
Voyager Box is available through one of the launchers on the second panel and the right-click menu, the others are only available through the right click-menu. First there are are the additional menu items in the right-click menu
Unfortunately, for non French speakers most of the text in all of these tools are in French. The developers do, however, provide English translations next to the French where it is essential.
A unique feature not available, in any ditribution I am aware of, is of a way to switch to and from a different desktop environment without logging out and logging back in. This feature was probably designed to address a failing in Xfce that other DEs like KDE and Cinnamon, do not have in the least, which is that Xfce does not have an easy and visually appealing method of quickly seeing what windows are on each of the virtual desktops. (Voyager HD 14.04.02 addresses this failing by integrating the KWin window manager into Xfce.)
Some details of the distribution follow, but at this point we know that what makes Voyager unique are the great visually appealing customizations, the usability customizations, and the unique shell switch feature.
Some aspects of the distribution warranting more information are covered in later sections, but I will give some quick facts here for those that don't want to read this entire post.
Various versions of Voyager -- all live so you can run them from a DVD or USB drive, are available from the Voyager website. The featured distribution is the one based on Xubuntu 14.04 LTS, offering update support for three years with an interval of two years until the next LTS release. Currently version 14.04.02 of this releae is available. (Note that when I visited and downloaded this Xubuntu based distribution, 14.04.01 was the available distribution.) There are links to a Sourceforge download
of both 32 and 64 bit live isos, in addition to links to torrents for both architectures.
A variant of this featured version called Voyager HD, which alows the user to switch from the default Xfce window manager, Xfwm to KWin -- the KDE default window manager -- has been released since the initial Voyager 14.04. This is also available for download in both a 32 bt and 64 bit version. I will be replacing this installation with that one, so check back for a review of the changes.
Two pure Debian versions, one based on Debian 7.3 (Wheezy) and one based on a development version of Debian 8 (Jessie) are also available with the Xfce desktop. However, potential users are warned that if an uncomplicated user experience is desired, they should only use the Xubuntu based version.
Voyager only uses the Xfce desktop, by default on the Xubuntu based versions and by preferene on the Debian versions. This choice of desktop, I assume, was made by the developers because they appreciate a light and flexibile desktop environment that still allows all aspects of its interface to be customized.
If the optional Switch Gnome-Shell / Xfce component is activated the shell can be switched from Xfce to Gnome without logging out. This feature was probably created to provide a feature missing in Xfce -- the abiity to view and manage all windows on all desktops. A better solution, in my opinion, is provided by the Voyager HD version.
The distribution, being based on Xubuntu (Ubuntu) uses all of Ubuntu's infrastructure, a definite strength of this distribution as any software a user may want will be available and any software that needs to be downloaded from an external source (like the Opera 2X series) will have native versions available.
Ubuntu Software Center is installed by default as well as Synaptic Package Manager and Gdebi Package Installer. Unfortunately for non-French speakers, the titles and sub-titles in Ubuntu Software Center are in French, but descriptions are in English.
One of Voyager's customizations is a tool to install or uninstall certain packages that, I assume, the developers assume are useful.
If a user does not see a need for the preinstalled programs this is an easy way to uninstall them by simply unchecking the boxes. This tool is accessed by right-clicking an empty area of the desktop, selecting Voyager Box, and then selecting "Logiciels - Softwares" in the dialog box that opens or through some of the other methods of accessing Voyager's custom tools.
Difficulty in using this distribution will not be an issue for almost everyone, as it is not the very different and innovative {cms_selflink ext='http://nixos.org' text='NixOS'}or {cms_selflink ext='https://wiki.qubes-os.org' text='Qubes OS'}, an unstable rolling release with the potential of breaking, or a highly technical distribution with developers that purposefully make changes to discourage novice Linux users.
The only difficulties may be that most of the custom tools have interfaces in French with only very basic English translations alongside the French and that a couple of minor fixes need to be made for full functionality.
Almost everything works out of the box, the exceptions being the backlight control -- which is a very common issue with all Linux distributions that is easy to fix, and that hibernation is not enabled by default -- which is by Ubuntu design. There was an issue with hibernation after I enabled it, specifically that when I resumed that the speakers were unavailable and that the system incorrectly assumed headphones were plugged in. This may be because I did not restart after enabling hibernation and hibernated when finishing my session. After this initial issue suspend and hibernate have worked reliably. Even the Targus Bluetooth dongle attached to my laptop works. The fixes I performed for the hibernation and backlight are described in a later section.
I did notice some bugs in some of the scripts that control some of the custom features. For example, when activating some of the custom launchers on the second panel, the desktop background is changed to something appropriate for the launched tool -- when activating the Ranger file browser, a background with a "Ranger" graphic is activated. The background does not change back when the tool is closed however.
Codecs for playing mp3 and mp4 media was installed by default along with software to play and manage such content, including Clementine, VLC Media Player, and Parole Media Player. The Transmageddon video transcoder was installed by default and VLC is capable of transcoding video, neither of these were able to convert an MP4 to FLV.
Firefox -- customized with methods that are transparent, so that the customizations are modifiable and extensible is installed by default. Flash video capability is enabled, along with various multimedia codecs by selecting the option to install third party software in the first page of the installer. Flash is downloaded and installed automatically, separately from the other multimedia codecs, on the first boot if a network is available.
Installation is managed by the standard Xubuntu installer which is the same as the Ubuntu installer, so you will see exactly what you would see when installing the stock Xubuntu.
There are no special considerations to be aware of during installation, unlike issues with other distributions which vary in severity depending on the distribution. The only minor things are the following:
/dev/sda
and not /dev/sda10
)The installer will automatically recognizes an EFI system and install the Ubuntu version of GRUB to the EFI partition. At boot GRUB will recognize other installed Linuxs and Windows and list them in its menu, if theinstallation tips were followed.
Although this is a great distribution where some components or features that do not work or are unavailable -- such as Bluetooth -- in other distributions are available in Voyager, not everything does. And I have found certain minor adjustments are necessary for me. These are addressed here.
Immediately after installation backlight control on my Lenovo V570 with an Intel integrated graphics card was not available. The Xfce panel plugin for brightness control was not installed by default, which would not work anyway, had it been installed. The keyboard volume controls worked but the analogous keys for backlight control did not work, and the OSD for backlight control did not appear -- the display appears indicating a change in the backlight level without the level actually changing in some distributions.
This problem was easily solved using {cms_selflink page="backlight-control" text="this method"}. Although, it does not appear that the backlight level is not set to its previous level afte a power cycle, I can live with this. I also installed the package providing the panel brightness control, xfce4-power-manager-plugins.
Hibernation is an available feature on this Xubuntu based distribution, with the command sudo pm-hibernate
entering the system into hibernation. However it is not available in any of the menus where it would normally be an option, such as the Session plugin control or the Power Settings dialog. {cms_selflink ext='https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/ubuntu-help/power-hibernate.html' text='This page'} on the Ubuntu 14.04 documentation provides a solution to this problem, which involves a simple edit of a configuration file.
/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/com.ubuntu.enable-hibernate.pkla
Voyager makes this easy to do graphically, just navigate /etc/polkit-1
using Thunar, the file manager, right click in the folder and select "Administrator"./etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/com.ubuntu.enable-hibernate.pkla
.com.ubuntu.enable-hibernate.pkla
[Re-enable hibernate by default in upower]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.upower.hibernate
ResultActive=yes
[Re-enable hibernate by default in logind]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate;org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate-multiple-sessions
ResultActive=yes
I found the placement of the second panel on the middle right screen edge to interfere when trying to use the vertical scroll bar. Moving the mouse pointer to the screen edge to access the scroll bar, brought the panel out of hiding. I found locking this panel to the bottom left edge of the screen worked best. A quibble, but this was the only thing that annoyed me about this distribution. I would also modify the workspace switcher to one row to, change the window button plugin to show button labels, add a show desktop plugin, and add a window menu plugin. I find these main panel modifications allow easy desktop and window navigation and management, without having to use the Gnome Shell Switch.
The feature that impressed me most was the shell switch from Xfce to Gnome without logging out.
Here is a video from the Voyager Live Gnome Shell - Xfce page and Youtube that demonstrates it in use.
The page also shows how to activate it; the steps are reproduced here for your convenience.
cd ~ && wget https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81072819/Switch Voyager-01.tar.gz && tar xvzf Switch-Voyager-01.tar.gz && sudo ~ / Switch-Voyager-01 / install .sh
When this process is finished and you log out, you will find you now have the option to log into a Gnome session, in addition to Xubuntu and Xfce sessions. But this is just an added benefit of this feature; the real benefit is being able to right-click
on the desktop and select "Switch Shell" to use the expo like features of the Gnome shell.
I found some very useful and surprisingly delightful programs included by default in Voyager, for example the Slingscold and CoverBloobus. However certain ones that I think are much better than the default were missing, probably in the interest of maintaining a lightweight system, although the "Logiciels - Softwares" tool has an easy way of installing some packages users may want. Some of the applications I installed are:
As described above the package management systems are the command line apt program, common to all Debian based systems, and the standard Ubuntu Software Center, Synaptic Package Manager, GDebi Installer, and the custom "Logiciels - Softwares" component of Voyager Box.
The list of included software seems to be very thoughtful and everything installed -- which is available on the main Voyager Live site will be useful or surprisingly delightful, as some of the software was to me, to most people. For example, you get not only the Clementine Music Player,
but other programs that work well with a music program and enhance the experience, like the Cover Gloobus desktop widget. I also liked the Slingscold Launcher, which was thoughtfully added to the panel with a custom auncher, and the GDebi Package Installer. I used GDebi to install the Opera 26 browser (Developer Version) -- which I like as a good addition to Chromium and Firefox -- after downloading it from the Opera Website.
I also greatly appreciated the inclusion of the backup program, Simple Backup Suite,
a very easy and capable program with a standard user and administrator mode. I did however install my preferred applications, some listed above , as anyone would.
As mentioned before, the default browser is Firefox, which like the rest of the distribution has been customized with attention to its aesthetic qualities and user convenience. The following video shows the extent of the customizations,
with nineteen separate themed start pages with some nice photographic or vector graphic backgrounds and animated groups of links. Unfortunately, for non-French-speakers, some of the links are not relevant. However, these startpages, located in /.startpage
, with a directory for each startpage, can easily be edited, and the developers indicate this in the actual HTML files that generate the startpages.
As this distribution is based on Xubuntu 14.04, the documentation provided by Xubuntu is applicable for the base elements of Voyager, as are the Ubuntu documentation and help pages, which you may have realized when reading this. These resources, however, do not cover the custom elements of Voyager.
The developer refers users with problems to the {cms_selflink ext='http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org' text='Ubuntu Francophone forum'}, but does provide some guidance on the Voyager site on the customizations in Voyager. The general preview video shows what Voyager customizations are available and how they can be used. The shell switch videos show how these specific components can be activated and used after installation. The developer also provides instructions where necessary, for example on installing Gnome Shell Switch. There is also a link entitled {cms_selflink ext='http://voyagerlive.org/index.php/tuto-voyager-14-04/' text='Tuto Voyager 14.04'}which provides instructions for unusual scenarios and solutions to common issues.
All of these resources are in French but Google translate is embedded in all of the Voyager pages. In most cases anyone who has some experience with Linux will not even need to visit the Voyager site except to view the videos and if they want the Shell switch, to find the the one command to activate it. (If prospective users have read this article in its entirety, they may not need to visit the site even for that, but only to get the download link.)
I like this distribution very much, especially the Kwin variant Voyager HD. The Xubuntu (Ubuntu) base is very reliable and has a great infrastructure and ecosystem. On top of this, the aesthetic and usability customizations are very appealing. Anyone who likes Xfce or wants a reliable, easy to use, and nice looking system should try this. The only caveat is that all of the distribution's specific online resources and and some user interface elements of the custom components are in French, a trait that some won't like.