[conspire] (forw) Re: Need to Install Ubuntu Linux

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

On 01/27/2017 12:13 PM, Rick Moen wrote:

>> My desktop is currently using 1.2Gb.
>> I'm running a BLOATED Java app, thunderbird, firefox, hexchat, a
>> couple of terminals.
>> When I parallel compile eg. Yocto, I'm mostly constrained by CPU (or
>> probably I/O or a mix of everything, but RAM usage is still much
>> below 8Gb).
>> If I fire up virtualbox and run a couple of apps in XP RAM
>> consumption goes up to 2.5Gb

> I try to remember that a lot of classic desktop users, especially if
> they're relying on the likes of Unity and other GNOME3-family things,

I don't know about GNOME. I'm currently running xfce4 after many years 
running KDE. I switched to xfce4 mostly for stability and a bit 
disappointment about akonadi.
KDE is changing faster than xfce4 and it is made of way more parts and 
this has side effects if you're running sid.
Once in a while I check if KDE has become usable.
If I was running KDE everyday I'd know which package I should hold to 
make it works. But I'm not, and I still have to test it in the right moment.
Having said that... KDE is pretty fast, contrary to xfce4 it will gain 
wayland support and it doesn't use that much ram compared to xfce4 while 
it provides many more useful services.

But you know... I'm a systemd fan, no surprise I fancy KDE.
Seriously, I don't think there is any lesson to learn about KDE not 
being as stable as xfce4 in sid. But yeah, you can.

> are going to be chewing up RAM like crazy.  Many of them also, I've
> noticed, just launch things with wild abandon, never, ever look at a
> process list, and expect to always have an arbitrarily large number of
> Web browser tabs open -- and complain when things get slow, and have
> absolutely no idea why.

You really have to use a pretty old very low end computer to have any 
reason to complain about speed even if you've many things running.
I'm still below 2Gb opening >10 tabs + the aforementioned Java app 
etc... cpu is mostly idle.
But yeah if you had to run an antivirus... ;)

Most of the slowdown I experience in Linux are due to:
- bad graphic drivers
- software that is not a first class citizen in Linux (hey Mozilla can 
you hear me?)
- proprietary software (wasn't flash supposed to die?)
- javascript

On Linux you're not encouraged to run or install everything you find around.
And yeah an app shop is no substitute for a *distribution*.

> Anyway, FWIW, about a minute after I wrote to Robert, I started writing
> the follow-up that I also sent to this list, to help give perspective.
>
>> I can think of few things that may require RAM if you're not a programmer:
>> - gaming
>> - photo/movie editing
>> - you need a VM for Windows
>
> To be sure.  But have you observed the habits of typical desktop users?
> I mean, as to the things I talk about above.

Typical desktop users run Windows.
Then of course there are people that like to compile things from source, 
check that shiny "whatever" they saw on that web site, "customize" all 
the 3D effects of their desktop...
But fortunately they still are not the typical Linux desktop user.

> Anyway, I've always appreciated the way Linux can always put more RAM to
> good use as disk cache, if nothing else.

It really depends on what you do with your box.
Once upon a time I was writing programs that were using DB with several 
millions records, RAM was never enough.
Now I mostly compile programs of 50-200K LOC and the most heavy duty 
task of my PC is running the JS I can't block. At the end of the day, no 
matter how much I scroll down on imgurl I don't think I'm going to reach 
4Gb ;)

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it http://www.borgonovo.net