Xubuntu Jaunty - not so light anymore

[timzak]

I know out of the box, Xubuntu has never been the lightest distro out there, but I used to be able to disable services and auto-started apps, then eliminate a panel and some panel applets to cut the memory footprint down pretty significantly. With Feisty, I could get it down to around 55 MB. I got Hardy down into the high 60s to low 70s in memory footprint. I could only get Intrepid down to about 100 MB. Now with Jaunty, I can't get the memory footprint any lower than regular Gnome Ubuntu Jaunty: roughly 150 MB. It seems like Xubuntu is moving away from calling itself lighter in weight than Ubuntu, and relabeling itself as Ubuntu with an XFCE DE. More about choice than lightweight. One thing I have to say, though: the default look of Xubuntu 9.04 is stunning. Very attractive out of the box!

Thoughts?

[wolfen69]

you have to realize that memory is very cheap these days, and most people have 512mb or more. if memory is an issue for you, just do a minimal install and build it up the way you want it. or there are other lightweight distros you can use.

[swoll1980]

you have to realize that memory is very cheap these days, and most people have 512mb or more. if memory is an issue for you, just do a minimal install and build it up the way you want it. or there are other lightweight distros you can use.

I agree. this whole memory footprint obsession is nonsense. Unless your computer is like 10 years old, there's no reason to worry about it.

[Kareeser]

wolfen: You have a point, but there are computers in production environments today which use legacy technologies and would be much too costly to upgrade.

For example, my server uses RDRAM, which would cost upwards of $100 for a 1GB stick.

In this case, it would be nicer if Xubuntu were more lightweight. It's a moot point, since I have Intrepid server on it, but the point is made.

[collinp]

I agree. this whole memory footprint obsession is nonsense. Unless your computer is like 10 years old, there's no reason to worry about it.

Really, my computer is a 10 year old HP Pavilion Intel Celeron 1.1GHz 512MB RAM computer. Gnome runs fine under it, with compiz enabled. Probably would have to go older, like 13-14 years old, for it to actually matter.

[CharmyBee]

There are also countries where you can't go out and splurge for gigabytes of RAM like everywhere else. Ditto for bandwidth.

[Icehuck]

wolfen: You have a point, but there are computers in production environments today which use legacy technologies and would be much too costly to upgrade.

For example, my server uses RDRAM, which would cost upwards of $100 for a 1GB stick.

In this case, it would be nicer if Xubuntu were more lightweight. It's a moot point, since I have Intrepid server on it, but the point is made.

Counting my ex-employer just spent $12,000 on upgrading the RAM on the two of our servers, I'm calling that a deal.

[chris4585]

Just use Puppy Linux?

Alternatively, install minimal installation and install xorg, gdm, lxde, firefox, etc... not so hard

[Joeb454]

I agree. this whole memory footprint obsession is nonsense.

I completely agree

I used to think "wow I'm using a lot of RAM" (I have 4GB, it was using < 1GB) until one day I stopped and thought "hold on....I have the potential to run all this 3 times over on the same machine!"

I don't worry about RAM usage anymore

[Namtabmai]

I completely agree

I disagree Well sort of, bare in mind my requirements probably differ greatly from the majority of users, but still a low memory foot print is what I look for in a WM.

I spend most of my time in other applications, mostly programming/data processing. I realised about 6 months ago I barely use any of the features of Gnome or any DM for that matter.

While a few hundred MB for a DM doesn't seem like much, when your running MySql, Apache, Firefox, Eclipse, etc those extra MBs can be put to much better use when I'm not ever using any of the features they being used for.

But this is the real beauty of Linux, it scales wonderfully in both directions. You'll have a hard time getting XP to work in a smaller foot print below the specs MS post, and without buying a totally different OS it won't use over 3.5Gb.
With Linux, it scales beautifully. It can run on you internet router, mp3 player or you can through everything you've got at it and it will use it.