[GRLUG] Desktop managers

[Michael Mol]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 2:21 PM, Greg Folkert <greg at gregfolkert.net> wrote:
> Don't run GDM. Use a different display manager if you must use one, use
> the one that X (XDM) provides its no frills and very light in most
> respects.
>
> Otherwise, "startx" saves considerable resources... though you have to
> login on the "icky" command line.

startx is fine, but I haven't notice gdm continue to consume resources
after I log in.  Besides, being able to switch sessions when needed is
helpful.

>
> "XFS" (X Font Server) if you have the fonts locally and in the proper
> place, you don't need it.

As long as the font packages install fonts in the correct places, he'd
be fine.  But I've seen plenty of font packages that had a font
manager such as xfs or defoma listed in their dependencies.

>
> Any "mouse manager" isn't needed as long as you don't need it outside of
> X.

True, but gpm was designed to run on systems with 64MB of RAM...it's
hardly a resource hog.

>
> Run X at a lower color resolution, it amazing at how much the memory
> difference is between a 24/32bit display color vs 8 bit is. Yes 8 bit is
> 256 colors... but aren't we talking about a small resource machine? Oh
> yes and try not running at 1600x1200 or other HUGE resolution, as that
> ALSO cranks the memory the X server requires.

Very true.

>
> Also, since it *IS* an older machine consider running a framebuffer
> display environment. They rock awesome... but then you'll need the mouse
> manager.

The problem with a framebuffer X server is that it's largely
unaccelerated.  Last time I used one, I had terrible tearing and lag
when simply scrolling a web page in phoenix or opera.

>
> Also, since it *IS* an older machine perhaps you don't need HAL/udev and
> other scanning processes, like ACPID or APMD or any kind of an AVAHI
> (and related services) running.

acpid isn't a resource hog.  And even a 700MHz system is new enough to
use ACPI over APM.  If you get rid of HAL/udev, though, you're
sticking yourself with the responsibility of managing device nodes
manually, which is no longer a simple thing to do.  Worse, most
current distros would have those packages in their "required" list.

>
> If you use static IP address setups... you can remove Network Manager
> and any DHCP* packages and setup /etc/network/interfaces

The system has 300MB of RAM.  dhcpclient isn't going to be a problem.
Removing these packages saves more on hard disk space than RAM.  His
system doesn't sound like it's hurting as bad as an eeePC... ;-)

>
> Don't know if DBUS can be easily removed, but there are things t does to
> suck resources.

I don't know about this one either...

>
> Anything Bluetooth can go, update-notifier and its kind of easy update
> stuff can go.

Agreed.

>
> Start using things like mutt for e-mail vs Thunderbird or Evolution or
> Kmail. Use w3m-image for frambuffer goodness.

An even cheaper solution would be to have GMail or Yahoo POP his email
from whatever server it's on, and use a web browser.  GMail works fine
with Opera and Galeon.  I believe it also works with lynx/links/w3m,
if needed.

>
> There are other things you can do even more, but go way beyond the scope
> of this e-mail

A lot of these are great ideas for embedded systems, not so important
for any PC built since 1996.



-- 
:wq