[desktop-discuss] lightweight graphics options....

[Jasse Jansson]

On Oct 25, 2006, at 6:33 PM, Garrett D'Amore wrote:

> Eric Boutilier wrote:
>> On Wed, 25 Oct 2006, Dave Miner wrote:
>>> Garrett D'Amore wrote:
>>>> Glynn Foster wrote:
>>>>> Hey,
>>>>>
>>>>> Garrett D'Amore wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I realize that a lot of focus is being spent on JDS 3/gnome,  
>>>>>> and that
>>>>>> this is largely a good thing for the end user.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> However, I am interested, also, in having a "lightweight" desktop
>>>>>> environment, suitable for use by system administrators to  
>>>>>> access gui
>>>>>> tools on machines that are otherwise not normally used as a  
>>>>>> desktop.
>>>>>> (Think of an NFS server somewhere.  It is useful to be able to  
>>>>>> run
>>>>>> smc
>>>>>> and such tools, without paying the full price of Gnome.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The requirements for such an environment would not be  
>>>>>> dissimilar to
>>>>>> those required for graphical suninstall -- a basic window manager
>>>>>> like
>>>>>> mwm or dtwm would be adequate.  I'd be even happier if we got
>>>>>> something
>>>>>> like xfce4, which was open source, into such as an environment
>>>>>> (but then
>>>>>> again, I use xfce4 on my primary desktop).
>>>>>>
>>>>> Sounds good to me - maybe it's something you'd like to consider
>>>>> championing?
>>>>> While it's probably a good business case for Sun to support any
>>>>> more desktops
>>>>> than we currently do [1], we could consider doing something like
>>>>> this in the
>>>>> companion CD?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Glynn
>>>>>
>>>>> [1] And after CDE moves away, I'd far rather capture that space  
>>>>> and
>>>>> reduce
>>>>>     the number of CD's in a Solaris install than add another
>>>>> desktop env
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I have no idea if I can champion anything at all.  But see my  
>>>> earlier
>>>> post with respect to "environments".  At this point I would be  
>>>> strongly
>>>> in favor of picking up fvwm a basic Window Manger (not a whole  
>>>> desktop
>>>> environment) and putting it in the basic install (the same place  
>>>> that
>>>> twm is found) so that suninstall etc. can make use of it.  I would
>>>> _not_
>>>> like this on a separate companion CD, because at that point it  
>>>> loses
>>>> most of its advantages (sysadmins can't "count on it being  
>>>> there", and
>>>> Sun can't use it for suninstall, etc.)
>>>>
>>>
>>> I'm doubtful that we're interested in it for Solaris installation.
>>> We're moving in the direction of providing a full Gnome desktop  
>>> instead
>>> that lets you try things out before installing or while the  
>>> install is
>>> happening.  Other distributions might make other choices, I  
>>> suppose, but
>>> that's what we're looking at for Sun's.
>>
>> Along those lines, what about isolating GNOME's window manager as  
>> Garrett
>> asked about yesterday (see below). Is it feasible?
>>
>> Eric
>>
>> On Tue, 24 Oct 2006, Garrett D'Amore wrote:
>>     ==  (Possibly the basic window manager from gnome would work too,
>>     ==  as long as we only start up the window manager and not all
>>     ==  the other gobbeldy-gook associated with gnome.  I haven't
>>     ==  looked lately, so I have no idea how tightly integrated the
>>     ==  window manager in gnome is to the rest of the desktop.) ...
>
> FYI, I found that even isolated, metacity sucked up about 67M size and
> 10M rss.  The "size" was more than 6X its nearest competitor of the
> options I tested.  (This is what some people like to call  
> "bloatware".)

It seems that the Gnome team has not only nicked
the appearance of Winslow, they have also nicked
the technology behind it ;o)





Kaiser Jasse -- Authorized Stealth Oracle

The axioms of wisdom:
1. Go the SPARC way of life
2. You can't conquer the universe without the knowledge of FORTRAN
3. In the Unix realm, 10% of work fixes 90% of the problems