Re: Lightweight desktops?

At Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:39:11 -0800 A Watcher <stocksami@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I often read that you should pick a lightweight distro for older PCs as
they demand fewer resources. All of the desktops seem to do the same
thing. What is the difference? What extra do you get when you use KDE
instead of a lightweight desktop?

A 'lightweight desktop' does lots less than Gnome and KDE. A lightweight
desktop generally means:

1) NO GUI file manager. You learn how to navigate the file
system with the shell from an xterm.
2) NO Heavyweight task / session manager. You lauch most
applications from the shell from an xterm.
3) NO 'Start' menu.
4) Little or no 'eye candy' (a very simple / sparse desktop). In
the extreme case it means no application launcher icons at all, just a
simple (usually text only) menu of very basic applications (web browser,
e-mail client, xterm, and a few odds and ends).

Basically, just a small step up from a pure console (no graphics at all)
setup.



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