[clue-tech] LXDE -- New Desktop for Old/Slow Machines

[Jed S. Baer]

On Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:04:50 -0600
Dennis J Perkins wrote:

> On Mon, 2008-07-07 at 19:34 -0600, Jed S. Baer wrote:
> > Just caught a link to an article about LXDE, the Lightweight X11
> > Desktop Environment. Check out the System Requirements here:
> > http://lxde.org/about.html
> > 
> > Of course, it doesn't help out with running big apps such as
> > OpenOffice. But even there, if the desktop environment is consuming
> > less RAM and cycles, even OO should improve at least a little.
>
> It uses Gtk+, just like XFCE.  Any Gtk program like Gimp should run on
> it.

That conflates the Desktop/Window Manager with the underlying system. The
choice of desktop and WM software will mostly not limit the apps that can
run. If I have the underlying libraries, I can run Gnome and KDE apps
even if I'm running Fvwm as my window manager (there's no "desktop"
environment at all with Fvwm, at least not in the sense of Gnome or KDE).
Same with Fluxbox or IceWM. Back when I ran Fvwm all the time, I used
mostly Gnome and GTK apps. IIRC, I also tried out Konqueror, and it ran,
though I didn't care for it.

The only restrictions on running apps are those that are wedded
specifically to features of a particular desktop. Things such as
Kapplets, for example, I wouldn't expect to just dock into the
FvwmButtons module. (I have no idea whether they'd just run as standalone
apps. If they would then I could use the "Swallow" Fvwm module to pull
them into a "button" in FvwmButtons.)

For that matter, if you're using the Gnome environment, you can certainly
run KDE apps, as long as you have the underlying Qt libraries. And I run
Gimp, Sylpheed, Galeon, and other GTK apps in KDE with no problems.