[gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Vlad Dogaru]

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Hello,

I am recently growing fed up with strongly graphical applications causing my
(admittedly quite old) computer to slow down to a crawl. I like the concept
of Ratpoison and am thinking of switching to it, but could use a few tips
for making the big change.

I am especially looking for a browser to substitute Firefox (it's great, but
quite a memory hog). I like links, what with its graphical capabilities, but
it lacks tabs and that's a major downside in my vision. I've tried Conkeror
for Firefox, but it's too Emacs-centric (vim person here) and also disables
tabs (or maybe it's me -- I couldn't get them to work).

Any other tips or nifty programs you could link me to would be greatly
appreciated, especially Ratpoison-related; For instance, C-t is too
RSI-prone for my taste and conflicts with Firefox's new tab button (I want
to switch, but I realise fx could prove irreplaceable, mainly due to the
large userbase).

Thanks in advance,
Vlad

-- 
How's my English? How about my Netiquette?
Do mail me if something is wrong with my behaviour. Thank you.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[PaulNM]

Vlad Dogaru wrote:

> I like links, what with its graphical capabilities, 
> but
> it lacks tabs and that's a major downside in my vision. I've tried Conkeror
> for Firefox, but it's too Emacs-centric (vim person here) and also disables
> tabs (or maybe it's me -- I couldn't get them to work).
> 
Try www-client/dillo , it's very lightweight and has tab support. It's 
what various livecd's use, like Insert Linux 
(http://www.inside-security.de/insert_en.html).

It's quite nice, the menus and toolbars take up very little space.

> Any other tips or nifty programs you could link me to would be greatly
> appreciated, especially Ratpoison-related; For instance, C-t is too
> RSI-prone for my taste and conflicts with Firefox's new tab button (I want
> to switch, but I realise fx could prove irreplaceable, mainly due to the
> large userbase).
> 

I've never tried Ratpoison, but on my lower-power systems I use xfce, 
which isn't too bad.  If I want to really minimize resource usage I go 
with Windowmaker.

> Thanks in advance,
> Vlad
> 

HTH,	
	PaulNM
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Arturo 'Buanzo' Busleiman]

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PaulNM wrote:
> I've never tried Ratpoison, but on my lower-power systems I use xfce,
> which isn't too bad.  If I want to really minimize resource usage I go
> with Windowmaker.

I did. It's screen for X. All windows will maximize. It's really geeky :D - And you use all of
screen's C keys.

- --
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¿No sabés a dónde ir a comer o tomar algo? Visitá www.vivamoslavida.com.ar

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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Luke Ravitch]

On 2007-01-19 09:45, Vlad Dogaru <ddvlad@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am especially looking for a browser to substitute Firefox (it's great, but
> quite a memory hog). I like links, what with its graphical capabilities, but
> it lacks tabs and that's a major downside in my vision. I've tried Conkeror
> for Firefox, but it's too Emacs-centric (vim person here) and also disables
> tabs (or maybe it's me -- I couldn't get them to work).

I'd never heard of Conkeror, so I started playing with it.  I really
like it (but *I* am an Emacs guy).  If you do "M-x use-vi-keys" (where
"M-x" is probably Alt-x on your machine) then it feels more vi-like
(j,k scroll up/down; h,l go back/forward; colon for commands instead
of M-x).

It doesn't seem to do tabs, but it will open pages in different
(Emacs-like) buffers.  Use "C-x f" (with emacs keys) to open a URL in
a new buffer.  Then "C-x b" to switch between buffers.  (Not sure what
the equivilent vi-style keystrokes are, but they might be there)

Of course, Conkeror is still Firefox underneath, so that won't help
with it being a memory hog.

Anyway, thanks for showing me something new and cool!

-- 
Luke
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Avaricen]

Luke Ravitch wrote:
> On 2007-01-19 09:45, Vlad Dogaru <ddvlad@gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> I am especially looking for a browser to substitute Firefox (it's great, but
>> quite a memory hog). I like links, what with its graphical capabilities, but
>> it lacks tabs and that's a major downside in my vision. I've tried Conkeror
>> for Firefox, but it's too Emacs-centric (vim person here) and also disables
>> tabs (or maybe it's me -- I couldn't get them to work).
>>     
>
> I'd never heard of Conkeror, so I started playing with it.  I really
> like it (but *I* am an Emacs guy).  If you do "M-x use-vi-keys" (where
> "M-x" is probably Alt-x on your machine) then it feels more vi-like
> (j,k scroll up/down; h,l go back/forward; colon for commands instead
> of M-x).
>
> It doesn't seem to do tabs, but it will open pages in different
> (Emacs-like) buffers.  Use "C-x f" (with emacs keys) to open a URL in
> a new buffer.  Then "C-x b" to switch between buffers.  (Not sure what
> the equivilent vi-style keystrokes are, but they might be there)
>
> Of course, Conkeror is still Firefox underneath, so that won't help
> with it being a memory hog.
>
> Anyway, thanks for showing me something new and cool!
>
>   
You mean Konqueror.
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Bo Ørsted Andresen]

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On Saturday 20 January 2007 19:32, Avaricen wrote:
> > Of course, Conkeror is still Firefox underneath, so that won't help
> > with it being a memory hog.
>
> You mean Konqueror.

Err.. obviously not. Konqueror isn't based on Firefox...

http://conkeror.mozdev.org/

-- 
Bo Andresen

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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Avaricen]

Bo Ørsted Andresen wrote:
> On Saturday 20 January 2007 19:32, Avaricen wrote:
>   
>>> Of course, Conkeror is still Firefox underneath, so that won't help
>>> with it being a memory hog.
>>>       
>> You mean Konqueror.
>>     
>
> Err.. obviously not. Konqueror isn't based on Firefox...
>
> http://conkeror.mozdev.org/
>
>   
Thanks for this, Bo. I didn't even know of the existence of conkeror 
before now.

Best regards
Avaricen
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.]

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On Saturday 20 January 2007 12:32, Avaricen <avaricen@gmail.com> wrote 
about 'Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system':
> Luke Ravitch wrote:
> > On 2007-01-19 09:45, Vlad Dogaru <ddvlad@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I am especially looking for a browser to substitute Firefox.
> >> I've tried Conkeror for Firefox, but it's too Emacs-centric 
> >> (vim person here) and also disables tabs (or maybe it's me -- I
> >> couldn't get them to work).
> >
> > I'd never heard of Conkeror, so I started playing with it.  I really
> > like it (but *I* am an Emacs guy).  If you do "M-x use-vi-keys" (where
> > "M-x" is probably Alt-x on your machine) then it feels more vi-like
> >
> > It doesn't seem to do tabs, but it will open pages in different
> > (Emacs-like) buffers.
> >
> > Of course, Conkeror is still Firefox underneath, so that won't help
> > with it being a memory hog.
>
> You mean Konqueror.

No, Konqueror doesn't use Firefox or any Gecko technology underneath.  I 
believe the KDE developers are calling their technology (that is also used 
the KDE applications KHTML parts) either webkit or webcore.

Also, as far as I know, Konqueror doesn't have this strange emacs-like 
behavior and definitely has normal tabs.

-- 
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.             ,= ,-_-. =. 
bss03@volumehost.net              ((_/)o o(\_))
ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy   `-'(. .)`-' 
http://iguanasuicide.org/              \_/     

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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

On Saturday 20 January 2007 19:32, Avaricen wrote:

> You mean Konqueror.

No. See

http://conkeror.mozdev.org
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Avaricen]

Etaoin Shrdlu wrote:
> On Saturday 20 January 2007 19:32, Avaricen wrote:
>
>   
>> You mean Konqueror.
>>     
>
> No. See
>
> http://conkeror.mozdev.org
>   
:O I thought you were referring to the KDE app. ;) My apologies.
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[b.n.]

Vlad Dogaru ha scritto:
> Hello,
> 
> I am recently growing fed up with strongly graphical applications 
> causing my (admittedly quite old) computer to slow down to a crawl. I 
> like the concept of Ratpoison and am thinking of switching to it, but 
> could use a few tips for making the big change.

Buy a couple spare RAM modules. Surely I agree with your will to build a 
minimalistic system, this will help anyway and it's a nice experience, 
but RAM is quite cheap and is the magic elisir that allows outdated 
machines to be still usable -the CPU is rarely a problem, unless you 
often do something quite computationally intensive.

> I am especially looking for a browser to substitute Firefox (it's great, 
> but quite a memory hog). I like links, what with its graphical 
> capabilities, but it lacks tabs and that's a major downside in my 
> vision. I've tried Conkeror for Firefox, but it's too Emacs-centric (vim 
> person here) and also disables tabs (or maybe it's me -- I couldn't get 
> them to work).

Did you try Dillo? I don't know if it has tabs but it seems *very* 
lightweight.
Otherwise maybe Opera? people insist in saying it's really fast and 
light (and has tabs:as a matter of fact, Opera invented them!), but I 
personally don't know.

> Any other tips or nifty programs you could link me to would be greatly 
> appreciated, especially Ratpoison-related; For instance, C-t is too 
> RSI-prone for my taste and conflicts with Firefox's new tab button (I 
> want to switch, but I realise fx could prove irreplaceable, mainly due 
> to the large userbase).

Try to see what purposely lightweight distros like DamnSmallLinux, 
VectorLinux and Puppy Linux install by default, I think you'll have a 
good choice of lightweight packages. However as far as concerning 
ratpoison, I know nothing...

> How's my English? How about my Netiquette?
> Do mail me if something is wrong with my behaviour. Thank you.

This is going to be the best sign of 2007 :) - I really appreciate this 
kind of approach.

m.
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Hans-Werner Hilse]

Hi,

On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:40:21 +0000
"b.n." <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:

> Buy a couple spare RAM modules. Surely I agree with your will to build a 
> minimalistic system, this will help anyway and it's a nice experience, 
> but RAM is quite cheap and is the magic elisir that allows outdated 
> machines to be still usable -the CPU is rarely a problem, unless you 
> often do something quite computationally intensive.

Agreed. Anything below 128MB will be sluggish, no matter what. You can
only change in what way it is sluggish, at least a bit.

> > I am especially looking for a browser to substitute Firefox (it's great, 
> > but quite a memory hog). I like links, what with its graphical 
> > capabilities, but it lacks tabs and that's a major downside in my 
> > vision. I've tried Conkeror for Firefox, but it's too Emacs-centric (vim 
> > person here) and also disables tabs (or maybe it's me -- I couldn't get 
> > them to work).
> 
> Did you try Dillo? I don't know if it has tabs but it seems *very* 
> lightweight.

Dillo's nice and all, but it really has problems with complex sites.
And don't expect it to show flash animation (I'm not sure if that is
good or bad, actually), run Javascript (does it do that to some extend?
Last time I had a look it didn't)...

> Otherwise maybe Opera? people insist in saying it's really fast and 
> light (and has tabs:as a matter of fact, Opera invented them!), but I 
> personally don't know.

Opera also is not free software (but it is as in beer). Personally, I
like Opera very much. Does all the current pages (minor exceptions, but
more page-hickups than real broken pages). But it will need RAM, too.
That 128MB rule basically applies here. E.g. my currently opened Opera
has a RSS of 76MB -- with 10 tabs open, part of them doing heavy
Javascript jobs, like netvibes.

> > Any other tips or nifty programs you could link me to would be greatly 
> > appreciated, especially Ratpoison-related; For instance, C-t is too 
> > RSI-prone for my taste and conflicts with Firefox's new tab button (I 
> > want to switch, but I realise fx could prove irreplaceable, mainly due 
> > to the large userbase).
> 
> Try to see what purposely lightweight distros like DamnSmallLinux, 
> VectorLinux and Puppy Linux install by default, I think you'll have a 
> good choice of lightweight packages. However as far as concerning 
> ratpoison, I know nothing...

If the OP likes ratpoison, he might enjoy evilwm (very small memory
footprint, read the man page before running). If customization matters,
I found pekwm do a very good job at this. Complex, albeit easy
configuration. Nice themes -- but I did disable the themes, my WM has
only keystrokes and neither borders nor a title bar.

When there's need for a full desktop environment, I would suggest Xfce,
too.

-hwh
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Vlad Dogaru]

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On 1/19/07, b.n. <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Vlad Dogaru ha scritto:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am recently growing fed up with strongly graphical applications
> > causing my (admittedly quite old) computer to slow down to a crawl. I
> > like the concept of Ratpoison and am thinking of switching to it, but
> > could use a few tips for making the big change.
>
> Buy a couple spare RAM modules. Surely I agree with your will to build a
> minimalistic system, this will help anyway and it's a nice experience,
> but RAM is quite cheap and is the magic elisir that allows outdated
> machines to be still usable -the CPU is rarely a problem, unless you
> often do something quite computationally intensive.


I have 384 megs of RAM and no imediate possibility of buying more. I realise
it is arguably sufficient for many lightweight applications, but, as I
mentioned, it is becoming increasingly frustrating, even with the real power
of Gentoo and Fluxbox (the two have changed my life -- literally).

> I am especially looking for a browser to substitute Firefox (it's great,
> > but quite a memory hog). I like links, what with its graphical
> > capabilities, but it lacks tabs and that's a major downside in my
> > vision. I've tried Conkeror for Firefox, but it's too Emacs-centric (vim
> > person here) and also disables tabs (or maybe it's me -- I couldn't get
> > them to work).
>
> Did you try Dillo? I don't know if it has tabs but it seems *very*
> lightweight.
> Otherwise maybe Opera? people insist in saying it's really fast and
> light (and has tabs:as a matter of fact, Opera invented them!), but I
> personally don't know.


I read up on Dillo and it looks promising. I will try it. As for Opera, I
used it on Windows for quite some time, but at one point I started to be
annoyed by the numerous marginally useful (at least to me) features that got
added. I still regard it as a great browser, comparable to Firefox, but not
what I am looking for.

> Any other tips or nifty programs you could link me to would be greatly
> > appreciated, especially Ratpoison-related; For instance, C-t is too
> > RSI-prone for my taste and conflicts with Firefox's new tab button (I
> > want to switch, but I realise fx could prove irreplaceable, mainly due
> > to the large userbase).
>
> Try to see what purposely lightweight distros like DamnSmallLinux,
> VectorLinux and Puppy Linux install by default, I think you'll have a
> good choice of lightweight packages. However as far as concerning
> ratpoison, I know nothing...
>
> > How's my English? How about my Netiquette?
> > Do mail me if something is wrong with my behaviour. Thank you.
>
> This is going to be the best sign of 2007 :) - I really appreciate this
> kind of approach.


Thanks. I really look forward to constructive critique.

Vlad

-- 
How's my English? How about my Netiquette?
Do mail me if something is wrong with my behaviour. Thank you.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[b.n.]

Vlad Dogaru ha scritto:

> 
> I have 384 megs of RAM and no imediate possibility of buying more. I 
> realise it is arguably sufficient for many lightweight applications, 
> but, as I mentioned, it is becoming increasingly frustrating, even with 
> the real power of Gentoo and Fluxbox (the two have changed my life -- 
> literally).

384 megs are low but not so bad. I did run a Kubuntu 6.06 system at work 
using full KDE+Firefox+Thunderbird, Gimp, Inkscape, kpdf etc. and yes, 
it was slow and I had to take care not to keep too much apps on at the 
same time (otherwise it was swap hell), but it worked.
Of course now that I added 512 mb it's much better...

I think you just have to be careful about apps, but not worry too much.

> I read up on Dillo and it looks promising. I will try it. As for Opera, 
> I used it on Windows for quite some time, but at one point I started to 
> be annoyed by the numerous marginally useful (at least to me) features 
> that got added. I still regard it as a great browser, comparable to 
> Firefox, but not what I am looking for.

I'd keep firefox or opera installed as a lifeboat, anyway. Dillo and 
links cannot match the other two for many features you *may* have the 
need sometimes.

Unfortunately the other good browser I'm aware of (Konqueror) requires 
kdelibs, that probably you're trying to avoid...

m.
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Uwe Thiem]

On 19 January 2007 23:46, Vlad Dogaru wrote:
> On 1/19/07, b.n. <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:

> > Buy a couple spare RAM modules. Surely I agree with your will to build a
> > minimalistic system, this will help anyway and it's a nice experience,
> > but RAM is quite cheap and is the magic elisir that allows outdated
> > machines to be still usable -the CPU is rarely a problem, unless you
> > often do something quite computationally intensive.
>
> I have 384 megs of RAM and no imediate possibility of buying more. I
> realise it is arguably sufficient for many lightweight applications, but,
> as I mentioned, it is becoming increasingly frustrating, even with the real
> power of Gentoo and Fluxbox (the two have changed my life -- literally).

This is odd.My main workstation also has 384MB of ram. I run a full KDE 
session and do not experience any slow down. Right now, I have open: 9 
konqueror windows (not tabs), kmail, kmahjongg, konsole with 3 sessions, 
noatun, kcalc. My background is a 1024x768 photo which also takes some 
memory. Switching between virtual desktops is instantaneous, all apps are 
very responsive.

One good thing (among others) of using a real desktop environment is that all 
apps share the vast majority of libraries which are loaded into memory just 
once. When you mix environments or use an eclectic  collection of unrelated 
apps, they all draw in different libraries and memory usage goes up.

Uwe

-- 
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Dale]

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Uwe Thiem wrote:
>
> This is odd.My main workstation also has 384MB of ram. I run a full KDE 
> session and do not experience any slow down. Right now, I have open: 9 
> konqueror windows (not tabs), kmail, kmahjongg, konsole with 3 sessions, 
> noatun, kcalc. My background is a 1024x768 photo which also takes some 
> memory. Switching between virtual desktops is instantaneous, all apps are 
> very responsive.
>
> One good thing (among others) of using a real desktop environment is that all 
> apps share the vast majority of libraries which are loaded into memory just 
> once. When you mix environments or use an eclectic  collection of unrelated 
> apps, they all draw in different libraries and memory usage goes up.
>
> Uwe
>
>   

I tend to agree with this.  I use KDE myself.  I have 1Gb of ram but as
I type only about 280 MBs of it is in use.  The rest is disk cache.  I
have a full blown KDE and I have Seamonkey, Konsole with several tabs
open, Kppp, Konqueror, Kpatience, Kopete and Gkrellm open.  I also have
a lot of server stuff running too.  Ntp, cups, folding which uses a lot
on this unit, nut, rsync, http-replicator, distcc and no telling what
else I forgot about.  With a fresh login. I use less than 100MBs and
that is with all that servers stuff and folding running still.  Well,
folding varies.  Sometimes it uses a lot. sometimes not.

Maybe you need to use top to see what is using all that memory.  I have
ran KDE with 256MBs of ram and had no problems with that either.  128MBs
may be a problem though.  That's getting into using swap a bit.

Post back what you find though.  I'm curious now.  Maybe post what top
says.  This is mine showing only what uses more than 1%:

>  8614 root      34  19  117m  90m 1384 S  0.0  9.0   0:01.51
> FahCore_a0.exe
>  8616 root      34  19  117m  90m 1384 S  0.0  9.0   0:00.03
> FahCore_a0.exe
>  8617 root      39  19  117m  90m 1384 R 24.6  9.0   5132:32
> FahCore_a0.exe
>  8618 root      34  19  117m  90m 1384 S  0.0  9.0   0:00.00
> FahCore_a0.exe
>  5373 dale      15   0  201m  78m  23m S  0.0  7.7   2:55.74 seamonkey-bin
> 20372 root      15   0 82616  48m 5380 S  1.3  4.8   5:00.31 X
> 16683 distcc    35  15 47360  38m 5620 R 29.3  3.8   0:00.88 cc1plus
> 22159 dale      15   0 61004  29m  18m S  0.0  3.0   0:44.93 kopete
> 22578 root      15   0 36628  24m  19m S  0.0  2.4   0:02.19 konqueror
> 22119 dale      15   0 32028  18m  11m S  0.0  1.9   1:32.15 kdesktop
> 22143 dale      15   0 25704  15m  12m S  0.0  1.6   0:02.99 kpat
> 22126 dale      15   0 28460  14m  11m S  0.0  1.4   0:10.78 kicker
> 22144 dale      15   0 24012  14m  11m S  0.0  1.4   0:00.98 kppp
> 22150 dale      15   0 27848  13m  10m S  0.0  1.3   0:14.60 konsole
> 22149 dale      15   0 27396  13m  10m S  0.0  1.3   0:00.48 kgpg
> 22160 dale      20   0 23260  12m  11m S  0.0  1.3   0:02.85 kdesu
> 22102 dale      15   0 27776  12m  10m S  0.0  1.3   0:02.58 kded
>  6334 haldaemo  15   0 14048  12m 1632 S  0.0  1.2  31:51.26 hald
> 22117 dale      15   0 31744  12m 9528 S  0.0  1.2   0:03.84 knotify
> 22115 dale      24   0 25460  11m 9316 S  0.0  1.1   0:04.57 kwin
> 22169 dale      15   0 24448  10m 9016 S  0.0  1.1   0:00.33 klipper
>  6882 root      15   0 23724  10m 9100 S  0.0  1.1   0:00.14 kio_uiserver

Maybe one of the gurus will see something strange.

Dale

:-)  :-)  :-)  :-)

-- 
www.myspace.com/dalek1967


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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Vlad Dogaru]

On 1/20/07, Uwe Thiem <uwix@iway.na> wrote:
> On 19 January 2007 23:46, Vlad Dogaru wrote:
> > On 1/19/07, b.n. <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Buy a couple spare RAM modules. Surely I agree with your will to build a
> > > minimalistic system, this will help anyway and it's a nice experience,
> > > but RAM is quite cheap and is the magic elisir that allows outdated
> > > machines to be still usable -the CPU is rarely a problem, unless you
> > > often do something quite computationally intensive.
> >
> > I have 384 megs of RAM and no imediate possibility of buying more. I
> > realise it is arguably sufficient for many lightweight applications, but,
> > as I mentioned, it is becoming increasingly frustrating, even with the real
> > power of Gentoo and Fluxbox (the two have changed my life -- literally).
>
> This is odd.My main workstation also has 384MB of ram. I run a full KDE
> session and do not experience any slow down. Right now, I have open: 9
> konqueror windows (not tabs), kmail, kmahjongg, konsole with 3 sessions,
> noatun, kcalc. My background is a 1024x768 photo which also takes some
> memory. Switching between virtual desktops is instantaneous, all apps are
> very responsive.

My current Fluxbox session uses 26% of 384 MiB of RAM, with 6 firefox
tabs, Gaim, Eterm, Conky, mpd and other mostly insignificant
processes. But I still experience a serious drop in responsiveness
when opening, say, 3 Slashdot tabs at once, or when starting
linuxdcpp.
> One good thing (among others) of using a real desktop environment is that all
> apps share the vast majority of libraries which are loaded into memory just
> once. When you mix environments or use an eclectic  collection of unrelated
> apps, they all draw in different libraries and memory usage goes up.

I've tried to keep most things down to GTK and X. For instance, I
haven't even installed qt.
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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Vlad Dogaru]

On 1/20/07, Uwe Thiem <uwix@iway.na> wrote:
> One good thing (among others) of using a real desktop environment is that all
> apps share the vast majority of libraries which are loaded into memory just
> once. When you mix environments or use an eclectic  collection of unrelated
> apps, they all draw in different libraries and memory usage goes up.

With this in mind, would running a (few) GTK apps on KDE make a large
difference? For instance, I am quite fond of Gaim, and even if I were
to try KDE, I wouldn't want to give it up (though I heard Kopette is
comparably capable).

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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Uwe Thiem]

On 20 January 2007 20:23, Vlad Dogaru wrote:
> On 1/20/07, Uwe Thiem <uwix@iway.na> wrote:
> > One good thing (among others) of using a real desktop environment is that
> > all apps share the vast majority of libraries which are loaded into
> > memory just once. When you mix environments or use an eclectic 
> > collection of unrelated apps, they all draw in different libraries and
> > memory usage goes up.
>
> With this in mind, would running a (few) GTK apps on KDE make a large
> difference? For instance, I am quite fond of Gaim, and even if I were
> to try KDE, I wouldn't want to give it up (though I heard Kopette is
> comparably capable).

If one is short of ram, it makes a difference, though GTK isn't much of a 
problem. If you run one single GNOME app under KDE, it pulls in a lot of 
GNOME libraries - and vice versa. 

Ue

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Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Mick]

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On Saturday 20 January 2007 18:23, Vlad Dogaru wrote:
> On 1/20/07, Uwe Thiem <uwix@iway.na> wrote:
> > One good thing (among others) of using a real desktop environment is that
> > all apps share the vast majority of libraries which are loaded into
> > memory just once. When you mix environments or use an eclectic 
> > collection of unrelated apps, they all draw in different libraries and
> > memory usage goes up.
>
> With this in mind, would running a (few) GTK apps on KDE make a large
> difference? For instance, I am quite fond of Gaim, and even if I were
> to try KDE, I wouldn't want to give it up (though I heard Kopette is
> comparably capable).

I'm using Gaim because it is lighter, but Kopete can do more (e.g. voicecalls 
with Gmail).  Once I have loaded Kmail or any other KDE base application then 
the added load of Kopete is not that much.  In any case, running Gaim ontop 
of KDE is more or less imperceptible.

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Mick

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