A part of every SBC community will always want to use the device as a desktop 'replacement'. Starting with ayufan's 0.6.25 build much of the things people seek in such a desktop replacement are finally available and working. That said, please remember that until 0.6.X is labelled as 'pre-release' certain features - or the entire OS image - may not work properly or at all.
Here is what you do. I suggest using an eMMC or external USB 3.0 HDD rather than a SD for best performance. Download the latest Ubuntu Xenial or Bionic (I've tested Bionic only) and install the LXDE desktop using the script in /usr/local/sbin
The LXDE desktop performs much better than the remaining options I've tried. If you have a high-DPI display, you will also be happy to find that your display resolution is supported and you can switch to other resolutions from the settings -> monitor settings drop-down menu. Out of the box the experience is a bit bare-bones, which is a good thing as you'll get a chance to theme the desktop and install the things you need yourself.
The build comes bundled with Chromium, which performs ok, but I suggest installing Firefox because version 57 onward performs very well on such low-end devices. The browsing experience is very smooth by default but you can improve performance further if you wish. Those who want to watch youtube in their browser will be happy that even windowed 1080p video playback works fine in both Chromium and Firefox.
Speaking of video playback, 1080p video can be played (potentially higher resolution too - I haven't tried) using MPV and SMplayer. If you wish to use SMplayer rather than MPV then you'll need to set it up first. I had no issues with smooth playback.
Here is what you do. I suggest using an eMMC or external USB 3.0 HDD rather than a SD for best performance. Download the latest Ubuntu Xenial or Bionic (I've tested Bionic only) and install the LXDE desktop using the script in /usr/local/sbin
Code:
sudo ./install_desktop.sh lxdeThe LXDE desktop performs much better than the remaining options I've tried. If you have a high-DPI display, you will also be happy to find that your display resolution is supported and you can switch to other resolutions from the settings -> monitor settings drop-down menu. Out of the box the experience is a bit bare-bones, which is a good thing as you'll get a chance to theme the desktop and install the things you need yourself.
The build comes bundled with Chromium, which performs ok, but I suggest installing Firefox because version 57 onward performs very well on such low-end devices. The browsing experience is very smooth by default but you can improve performance further if you wish. Those who want to watch youtube in their browser will be happy that even windowed 1080p video playback works fine in both Chromium and Firefox.
Speaking of video playback, 1080p video can be played (potentially higher resolution too - I haven't tried) using MPV and SMplayer. If you wish to use SMplayer rather than MPV then you'll need to set it up first. I had no issues with smooth playback.