[sf-lug] Fwd: "Future Lubuntu Releases Won't Focus on Old PCs"

[Rick Moen]

Quoting aaronco36 at sdf.org (aaronco36 at sdf.org):

[lots snippped]

> ...lightweight desktops.

First of all, I'm sympathetic with the *buntu people saying, about
dropping IA-32 architecture ('32-bit Intel') and setting expectations
that 2GB minimum total RAM is the price of entry.

1.  As the man said, computers have evolved.  IA-32 is mostly an antique
specialty niche in 2018, and machines with less RAM than that are pretty
damned old.  And a pretty damned old computer is guaranteed to be slow,
limited, and fragile.  So, maybe time to pack it in?

2. IA-32 also has security problems destined to be never properly
addressed.

3.  There will doubtless nonetheless be IA-32-supporting distros for a
decade longer still serving the IA-32 niche; they just won't be *buntu.
If you-generic insist on doing niche-interest computing and try to
insist on *buntu, then you-generic obviously don't understand what that
family of distros is about, and need to fix your understanding -- of
both *buntu and of Linux.

4.  I'm also sympathetic to Lubuntu developer Simon Quigley's passing
point that Firefox alone can, as typically used in 2018, gobble a couple
of gig of RAM.  (Of course, there are less RAM-gobbling graphical
browsers, and also ways to prevent Firefox from being quite such a pig, 
just as there are graphical word processors less RAM-gobbling than
LibreOffice, etc.)


About lightweight 'desktops':

It's depressing how many people have used Linux for years and still
think that a 'desktop environment' (DE for short) is somehow essential
to desktop computing on Linux.  Upon examination, I invariably find that
the people holding that view don't actually know what a DE is in the
first place; they just take as given that they need one for modern
desktop computing.

It doesn't take much digging to find that a DE is a marketing bundle, of
stuff that's necessary for desktop computing (e.g., a window manager)
with a bunch of things that aren't.  

Suffice to say, there are _way_ less RAM-gobbling Linux desktop
configurations than LXDE (and thus Lubuntu).  Most of those are
graphical environments that omit DE cruft, having not bought into the
error of assuming those to be required.  In this context, the quoted
marketing claim that 'Lubuntu will remain the operating system to bring
back to life old computers' makes me laugh, as it's not difficult to 
have a _much_ more lightweight graphical Linux system (sans DE) than that.

Screenshots of, and basic information about sundry windows managers for
the X Window System (_and_ a section at the bottom for DEs), here:
http://www.xwinman.org/



But here's the slightly depressing bit:  Question:  Why are the
attractions of DE-less graphical Linux systems so often ignored in these
discussions?  Answer:  Because configuring one requires understanding a
little bit about Linux software configuration.

Which is to say:  The logical way to have a sparse graphical environment
is to start with pretty nearly any graphical Linux installation and shut
off processes you don't want or need.  You keep looking at the report
given by 'ps auxw', pondering whether you need to be running particular
things that have autostarted without your asking for them, and seeing if
you miss them if you shut them off.  Eventually, you end up with a lack
of pointless background processes you have no use for, and just enough
code running to support your system and run the X Window System with
your preferred window manager -- with consequently radically reduced
hardware (including RAM) needs.

This of course assumes that the user ever bothers to look at 'ps auxw'
(one way to look at the current process table) output.  Or the output of
'top', to cite another way to look at the process table.  

And that's the depressing bit:  I keep encountering Linux users who've
been kicking the tires of Linux for a decade-plus but have absolutely no
idea what's in their process tables or even how to find out.

For _them_, yeah, Lubuntu is probably the best they'll ever find as 'the
operating system to bring back to life old computers', because they've 
punted on ever _even_ understanding what they're running, let alone
deciding what to run.

I wish them luck.

For the rest of us, if you _wish_ to get the best possible performance
out of old (or new, for that matter) computers and not throw away RAM on
performance-robbing rubbish processes you never asked for, understanding
what's in your process table and why is the beginning of getting in
charge and making huge improvements.  And, y'know, deciding what
software your computer runs -- which is pretty much the whole darned
point in the first place.

Easiest way to turn off the 'DE' part of a DE-based default distro load
(using *buntu as an example):  
$ sudo mv /etc/alternatives/x-session-manager ~
$ sudo reboot

Without the X11 session manager, the DE cruft that accompanies the
underlying window manager doesn't load, in my experience.   And, of
course, if the results are undesired, it's trivial to un-do the above.