Friday Distro: Ubuntu Studio
![story image](/pub/2015/11/03/i566.256x256.jpg)
The first version of Ubuntu Studio was released in 2007 and it was based on Gnome. In 2011, with the arrival of Gnome 3, the project decided to switch its base to Xfce, a move that the founder of the project said would offer some "immediately tangible" advantages: "For example, XFCE represents a familiar desktop metaphor (@Fab thanks) for users and provides a more resource friendly environment than GNOME, KDE, or (I would expect) Unity."
http://www.itworld.com/article/2998305/linux/meet-the-ubuntu-family.html#slide5
When Ubuntu Studio was released they all gave it a try, but they didn't stick with it for more than one or two release cycles and are all back on bare Ubuntu. I'll try to ask them why.