[TAG] Suggestions for *low* end systems?

[Thomas Adam]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 17:26:51 -0700
star at starshine.org (Heather Stern) wrote:

> I *do* have my own ideas on this topic, but I figured it'd be nice
> having the Gang chime in.

Well, let's see. My P166, with 32MB RAM ran X11 (version 3 and 4) not
too badly. Granted, it wouldn't run KDE or GNOME, but if you were
patient, it would run X, and you could get somne usability out of it....

What helped were a number of things:

1. A low resolution colour-depth (8/16 bits) is always a good idea. This
frees up quite a lot of memory.

2. Using a window manager (hellllo, "fvwm" :)) as opposed to a desktop
is preferable. This means that interal cruft such as built in file
managers are external and hence loaded only when needed. This helps
reduce memory consumption.

3. Using an alternative to X11 pure might be an option for really
low-end specs. Such things as: TinyX, mgr (yay, I lobe mgr) and even
Y-Windows (yes, I have named that right).

-- Thomas Adam

-- 
"Annie Hall leaves New York in the end. Press rewind, and Woody gets her
back again." -- "Look Inside America", Blur.