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A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops
Part 2
In my previous article Ive tried to investigate the RAM memory requirements for running some of the
most common light window managers and desktop environments available in the Linux world.
Prompted by several readers, Ive decided to include also the big, well-known memory hogs that grab
most of the Linux market, i.e. KDE, Unity and Gnome.
I am using the same setup, based on virtenv. It includes its own xserver (Xephyr) and a virtualization
container (LXC). The computer is an older 64-bit machine, running Ubuntu 12.04 with LXDE as desktop
environment.
I use free command to measure the memory before and after the WM/DE is started. The command
prints on the screen data made available by Linux kernel. The kernel knows at any moment how much
memory is using and how many buers it has available.
I measure the WM/DE as it comes out of the box, with all the features the authors intended as default.
Arguably, this is not the best way to measure. All window managers are congurable, and users in
general tend to personalize them. This adds more memory to whatever numbers I publish here.
Ratpoison
Lightning fast and stable, Ratpoison is a tiling window manager for the X Window System. The major
design goal of the project is to let the user manage application windows without using a mouse, hence
the name.
On Debian/Ubuntu install it as sudo apt-get install ratpoison, or yum install ratpoison on Fedora. Start it
with ratpoison command. Be prepared to read the documentation. It runs in 1MB of RAM memory.
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Ratpoison Window Manager
wm2
wm2 simply adds a frame to each window and attempts to look stylish. In the quest for being simple,
fast, and small, wm2 does not support icons, menus, toolbars, panels and docking areas.
Install it as apt-get install wm2 on Debian/Ubuntu, and start it as wm2. It runs in 0.7MB, this is the
smallest WM Ive tried so far. wm2 is not supported on Fedora.
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wm2 Window Manager
FVWM
FVWM (Feeble Virtual Window Manager) is one of the most ancient window managers still in use today.
It is a powerful and highly congurable environment for Unix-like systems. Some very popular window
managers and desktop environments, such as Afterstep, Xfce, are derived from FVWM.
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(source Wikipedia)
On Debian/Ubuntu install it as apt-get install fvwm, or yum install fvwm on Fedora. Start it as fvwm. It runs
in 13MB of memory.
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FVWM Window Manager
Window Maker
Window Maker window manager provides the users with a consistent, clean, and elegant desktop based
on NeXTStep interface, which eventually evolved into Mac OS X.
Window Maker is again under active development after seven years without an ocial release. It is not
available in Ubuntu software repositories (as of 12.04), you can however install it from a PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:profzoom/wmaker
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wmaker
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On Debian install it as apt-get install wmaker, and as yum install windowmaker on Fedora. Start it as
wmaker. It runs in 7MB of memory.
Window Maker Window Manager
Razor-qt
Razor-qt is an advanced, easy-to-use, and fast desktop environment based on Qt technologies. It is a
desktop for people who think KDE is bloated and suers from over-engineering.
Razor-qt is a new open-source project, and it is not ocially supported by most Linux distributions. For
Ubuntu users, the development team keeps a PPA up-to-date. The software works on any Ubuntu from
version 9.10 onwards. Installation is as follows:
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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:razor-qt
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install razorqt
The default install from PPA runs on top of KWin in 139MB of memory. It can be switched to OpenBox,
drastically reducing the memory size.
On Debian jessie install it as apt-get install razorqt, and in Fedora 19 and up as yum install razorqt. Start
it as razor-session.
Razor-qt Desktop Environment
KDE
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Ive always liked KDE. Elegant and reasonably fast, it is an excellent desktop choice for people
developing GUI software. In particular I like Kate text editor and KDi3. Qt development tools are also
well supported, but that was to be expected from a desktop based on Qt library.
I installed kde-plasma-desktop packet from Ubuntu 12.04. The packet is described here as the bare-
minimum required. I started it in console as openbox-kde-session. It runs in 201MB. On a real KDE
desktop such as Kubuntu it will be much more.
Note: the 201MB measurement was done on top of Openbox window manager. Usually, distros will pair KDE
with KWin window manager. This will add 100MB.
A full installation on Debian/Ubuntu is done as apt-get install kde, and on Fedora as yum install @kde-
desktop.
KDE Desktop Environment
Unity
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Unity is the default desktop in Ubuntu. Ubuntu is what they recommend you to try when you move to
Linux. It is friendly, functional, and geared towards human beings. Too bad it runs in 192MB of
memory! It would be a good idea to trim it down, lets say by 50%. As a note, DOS conquered the world
by running in 64KB of memory.
Unity is installed as sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop. You can start it with unity command.
Unity Desktop Environment
Gnome 3
Gnome 3 is an experimental desktop developed mostly by RedHat. Not all the functionality is ready (for
example the taskbar and the menus are missing), and there are problems in the listening-to-your-users
department. If you are looking for Gnome 2 functionality or something similar, check out Linux Mint
website.
I installed Gnome 3 as sudo apt-get install gnome-shell (Debian/Ubuntu) and started it as gnome-session. It
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went through 155MB of memory before painting anything on the screen. On Fedora Gnome 3 is
installed as yum install @gnome-desktop.
Gnome 3 Desktop Environment
Trinity, Mate, Cinnamon
In a normal world, where development teams listen to users, this should never have happened. Not
only these environments are smaller and faster, they actually do what desktop environments are
supposed to do.
To install Trinity, follow the instructions from here. Start it as /opt/trinity/bin/startkde. It runs in 55MB of
memory.
To install MATE, follow the instruction from here. Start it as mate-session. It runs in 42MB of memory.
Mate was included in Fedora 19, where is installed as yum groupinstall MATE Desktop.
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I installed Cinnamon as follows:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
Ive started it as cinnamon. It runs in 79MB. The package was included in Debian sid and it is installed
as apt-get install cinnamon. Cinnamon was also included in Fedora 19, where it is installed as yum
groupinstall Cinnamon Desktop.
Trinity Desktop Environment
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Conclusion
If you have some ancient hardware that you need to breathe new life into, or if you need to t a distro
on a modestly sized memory stick, the rst thing you should look at is the window manager/desktop
environment. Whatever your needs, Linux is much more than Gnome and KDE.
WM/DE Memory (MB)
Links:
TinyWM, 9wm, miwm, wm2, dwm, Ratpoison, TWM, xmonad, JWM, i3, Blackbox, Sawsh, IceWM,
1/10/2014 A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops Part 2 | l3net a layer 3 networking blog
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PekWM, Openbox, Window Maker, awesome, FVWM, Fluxbox, Mutter, E17, LXDE, KWin, MATE, Trinity,
XFCE, Cinnamon, Razor-qt, Gnome 3, Unity, KDE
Related Posts
A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops Part 1
A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops Part 3
Ubuntu Desktop Memory Comparison
Lightweight openSUSE: LXDE Desktop From Scratch
Lightweight Debian: LXDE Desktop From Scratch
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62 thoughts on A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops Part 2

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In "Linux" In "Linux" In "Linux"
Since youre including KDE and GNOME for comparison, I wonder if you would include also the Trinity-
DE, which is the currently maintained version of KDE3.5
Bob Robertson
April 11, 2013 at 12:52 pm
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Ill be glad to do it. The command to install it on Ubuntu (from trinitydesktop.org) is:
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-default-settings-trinity kubuntu-desktop-trinity
It is a 280 MB download. I am looking for an equivalent to kde-plasma-desktop package (74MB
download) from regular KDE.
For a minimal installation you can use:
aptitude install xserver-xorg kdm-trinity ksmserver-trinity
Thanks! Ive installed it as:
sudo apt-get install kdm-trinity ksmserver-trinity
Logout and login again, kde session started ne in a little less than 60MB. There are some problems
however with one library on Ubuntu 12.04:
konsole: symbol lookup error: /opt/trinity/lib/libkdeui.so.4: undened symbol:
_ZN7QObject18childrenListObjectEv
netblue30
April 11, 2013 at 3:09 pm
Post author
SlavekB
April 11, 2013 at 5:04 pm
netblue30
April 11, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Post author
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It is possible that in some packages missing run ldcong after installation. Please try to just run ldcong
to update the cache.
I see it the problem is not the lack of run ldcong. The problem is that you have installed libqt3-mt
from distribution, instead of the updated version from the Trinity sources.
That would explain it. Anyway, the session is 55MB, and looks better than plasma. Congratulations to all
the people involved in the project!
SlavekB
April 12, 2013 at 2:42 pm
SlavekB
April 12, 2013 at 2:56 pm
netblue30
April 12, 2013 at 3:15 pm
Post author
Do you have a source on Enlightenment being derived from something else? Im fairly certain that the
latest release from the E team is 100% their code not based on anything else.
Je Hoogland
April 11, 2013 at 1:16 pm
netblue30
April 11, 2013 at 3:19 pm
Post author
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FVWM
Also the picture with FVWM derivatives comes from Wikipedia.
That was a very very long time ago E17 has not a line in common with FVWM at all.
Cedric
July 22, 2013 at 5:42 am
you should add xmonad, it is like awesome but a bit more powerful imho.
Ive tried it, it wouldnt run. It could be a problem with the package distributed by Ubuntu 12.04, it was
complaining about some executable missing. Ill try again.
+1. In fact its only an extensive library of things you might want from a WM, and you just compose your
own (or you replace any parts by your code).
l
April 11, 2013 at 2:15 pm
netblue30
April 11, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Post author
vcunat
April 11, 2013 at 11:00 pm
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+1 please add xmonad, Im interested in seeing the result, thx
Managed to run xmonad. Together with xmobar it runs in 2MB of memory.
xmobar is quite heavy, and is only one of many trayer/bar solutions for xmonad. True measurements of
the default experience would not include 3rd party add-ons like xmobar.
Agreed! Without xmobar it was around 0.5MB. Ill modify the picture, thanks.
youdontknow
July 8, 2013 at 4:13 pm
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 7:17 pm
Post author
Don Stewart
July 15, 2013 at 9:14 am
netblue30
July 15, 2013 at 11:26 am
Post author
Missing 16 consumption!
on my gentoo comp:
dolopito
April 11, 2013 at 8:34 pm
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Thanks for the eort. TWM brought back some fond memories that was my go-to WM in the early 90s.
Brad
June 17, 2013 at 9:21 pm
You forgot ion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_(window_manager)
Sure, Ill give it a try!
Later: Sorry, couldnt do it. Ion doesnt seem to be in Ubuntu repositories, at least not for 12.04.
Scott Rubin
July 8, 2013 at 2:38 pm
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Post author
samegordon
July 8, 2013 at 2:54 pm
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Id like to see xfce4 and awesomewm, as well. Good list though. Ratpoison is great.
Youve missed part 1: http://l3net.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/a-memory-comparison-of-light-linux-
desktops/
ah indeed, thanks.
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Post author
samegordon
July 8, 2013 at 3:18 pm
You are comparing window managers to full desktop environments, its like apples to oranges
Also, between window managers, features dier so much this kind of comparison is kind of useless
> You are comparing window managers to full desktop environments, its like apples to oranges
Dont assume everybody uses a desktop manager. Many people just install a window manager and are
happy with it. Fluxbox is a very popular one, there are distros out there running Fluxbox by default.
pho
July 8, 2013 at 3:25 pm
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 3:41 pm
Post author
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Also, tiling window manager are very popular. It is more like comparing people who like apples with
people who like oranges.
> Also, between window managers, features dier
Yes, features do dier, this doesnt mean we cannot compare the resulting desktop.
Well said!
Jonas Lindstrm
July 8, 2013 at 6:23 pm
Nice article, even if I quite disagree with the conclusions!
Just some points, mostly about GNOME 3:
GNOME 3 is denitely not experimental, having hit the 3.8 release Id say its quite mature, even if it is
still evolving rapidly;
GNOME Shell does not have a proper taskbar but shows all the open windows in its overview mode
and the same overview mode is used to start applications, so theres no conventional menu, even tough
there are extensions to add those features (Im not sure to which taskbar and menus you were referring
to);
In my experience GNOME 3 developers usually listen to their users as much as developers from every
other OSS project out there: it usually works but theres always a few cases where things go bad;
Usually behind those complains theres no active push back from the developers, it is just that the
available manpower is limited and the developers priorities may not match the ones from the
complaining user;
Even if the GNOME 3 developers strive to oer the most comfortable user experience out-of-the-box
(and luckily my usage match almost perfectly what they provide ), it is clear that many users have
dierent ideas about how a desktop should behave and it often impossible to cater for all of them:
instead of providing a multitude of stand-alone switches in the UI they have chosen to provide an
extension system where the user can install packages that can heavily inuence the system behaviour,
Emanuele Aina
July 8, 2013 at 3:33 pm
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tweaking the underlying knobs in a much more coherent manner;
Note that `free` is often misleading, as the real working set may be quite a bit smaller than what it
returns (think about plugin libraries loaded but not actively used), and if you load a Qt application under
KDE the additional memory needed will be smaller than the one needed under FVWM or GNOME due to
the sharing of the code pages between processes (same for GTK+/Clutter under GNOME).
Anyway, interesting post!
Thanks for your comment. I wrote this article 3 months ago with whatever version was and still is
distributed by Ubuntu 12.04 denitely an experimental Gnome 3. Probably things have evolved and
3.8 looks and moves better.
Since Ubuntu switched to Unity, GNOME 3 packaging has been neglected quite a bit, so it is possible
that your bad experience with it is more due to broken packaging than the real status of the software. I
dont know how things currently stand in the Ubuntu camp, maybe there is a PPA out there with up-to-
date GNOME packages. Fedora 19 should have the latest and greatest GNOME 3 packages which may
be interesting to try, even if it is not going to be super-useful for the comparison since it is a completely
dierent distro
Thanks, but Gnome3 just doesnt work for me. I cannot use a desktop without a taskbar and without a
menu button. I am happy with LXDE, it has everything I need out of the box.
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 4:04 pm
Post author
Emanuele Aina
July 9, 2013 at 7:49 am
netblue30
July 9, 2013 at 11:49 am
Post author
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I think Ubuntu 12.04 installs today Gnome 3.4, and so does Debian 7. There is no package broken, this
guys know how to package software. Everything works as it was intended by the Gnome development
team. The bugs get xed in later Gnome versions, your regular Ubuntu/Debian long time support user
doesnt have access to them.
In my experience GNOME 3 developers usually listen to their users as much as developers from every
other OSS project out there
Trust me, I really wish you were right. The same way I felt betrayed by the KDE developers back when
they abandoned v3 and only oered updates for v4, I felt bad yet again about the Gnome developers
abandoning v2 and only supporting v3. Its about stopping the maintenance and bug-xing of really
good DEs in favor of severely crippled versions of them. It doesnt matter what Gnome 3 is today and
what it can be one year from now. It matters more that for 2 years we had to look for something we can
actually work with, and that by stepping out of our comfort/productivity zone.
If youre interested in seeing great developer-user communication, you should experience with the way
the Cinnamon developers listen to their users and you will probably feel amazed. I wont say its all
great, but actually getting your hands dirty and build a new DE for the users who wanted a mix of
classic-style DE and a modern DE, thats not something we see every day. Cinnamon is the result of tons
of user feedback, and thats what makes it special.
What you said about Gnome 3 can be 100% true for your case, in which case I wonder if youre aware of
the massive Gnome 3 user feedback: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?
page=news_item&px=MTAwMjY <- and this is not the only place where people complained. We don't
have to ask ourselves why the developers started Gnome 3 but rather why they stopped maintaining
Gnome 2 while version 3 was so crude and lacked so many features. It genuinely looks they didn't care
enough for their users.
If Gnome 2 didn't have bugs waiting to be xed, then many users wouldn't have bothered to comment.
But it wasn't the case. And this happened back when Unity was also in its early days, when KDE was still
struggling to come out more polished and to some extent it was quite polished but still heavy on the
resources and begging for more optimizations. It's not easy to forget such things when you simply have
to do your day by day stu and you have to keep your old software just because the newer one will set
you back. Now if you were just trying to sugar-coat those days, there's no need for comments. I just
Nicolae Crefelean
December 20, 2013 at 3:52 pm
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wish the developers would listen more of what the users say. Not to blindly do what the users ask, but
just show more respect to their user base their supporters.
Cinnamon is the result of tons of user feedback, and thats what makes it special.
Oh, and I feel that the same is true for GNOME too, its probably just a dierent set of users.
Also dont forget that most of the libraries used by Cinnamon are the ones developed by the GNOME 3
team, so some indirect credit should go to them too.
Also dont forget that most of the libraries used by Cinnamon are the ones developed by the GNOME 3
team, so some indirect credit should go to them too.
I am sure Cinnamon project already gives Gnome team all the credit required by GPL license, and if
Cinnamon becomes a very successful project, Gnome team will receive even more credit. I think the
discussion is about listening to your users, and it has nothing to do with giving credit to other projects.
Sorry Emanuele, Ill have to close the Gnome discussion here, it is denitely o topic, and there are
already so many places on the net dissecting this issue.
Emanuele Aina
December 22, 2013 at 5:56 pm
netblue30
December 22, 2013 at 7:11 pm
Post author
Hey can you do twm?
Luke Hollins
July 8, 2013 at 4:03 pm
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TWM running in 1.2MB of memory
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Post author
Its a shame you didnt include Awesome, its very awesome, and consumes ~40 Mb on my machine
Its a shame you didnt read the rst part of the article:
http://l3net.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/a-memory-comparison-of-light-linux-desktops/
Andrei Lisnic
July 8, 2013 at 5:39 pm
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 6:21 pm
Post author
Thanks great article. I have some questions.
1. Command free gives you absolute value of memory consumption. Dont you think dierent systems
in dierent state would result in dierent RAM consumption? Wouldnt it be better to run a window
manager or desktop environment for some time in order to measure and average real memory
consumption?
2. Most systems now a days come with ample amount of RAM. My current system comes with 8GB of
Sudhir Khanger
July 8, 2013 at 5:40 pm
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RAM. Does higher RAM consumption corresponds to greater power consumption and shorter battery
life?
3. Lastly, if several desktop environments and window managers are installed on a system, are they
going to interfere with each other?
Thank you for your comments.
1. I measure memory for a WM or DE with the default conguration as it comes from the package
manager. I do the measurement as I start the WM/DE. What happens after one hour I dont really know,
I guess it all depends how you use it.
2. It is very dicult today to persuade anybody to install Linux on a new computer. Most of the time I
see Linux going on old Windows 7 and very old WindowXP computers. What computers they sell in the
store today is irrelevant, Linux has no chance to run on them.
3. You can run only one of them at a time.
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 6:35 pm
Post author
What would be interesting is how those desktop environment behave in memory usage if you open up
the usual applications (the default ones coming with the desktop for example).
So opening up a le-manager, browser and music player and see how the memory consumption
changes.
Leszek
July 8, 2013 at 5:49 pm
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 6:38 pm
Post author
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I guess the biggest memory hogs out there are Firefox and Chromium, around 200MB with one tab and
no webpage loaded.
You forgot about Sawsh and e16 (more usable than e17, imho)
e16 is not available in Ubuntu 12.04. Sawsh runs in 2MB of memory.
Oleg
July 8, 2013 at 6:46 pm
netblue30
July 8, 2013 at 7:15 pm
Post author
I3 and DWM are also excellent very lightweight window managers.
C
July 8, 2013 at 8:35 pm
PekWM!
MrYesNo
July 8, 2013 at 10:29 pm
Bud A
July 9, 2013 at 12:26 am
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Ive been running cwm for over a year now on OpenBSD. Truly everything I need, very lightweight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matchbox_%28window_manager%29 missed:)
SunnyDrake
July 10, 2013 at 9:58 pm
ummm fyi enlightenment doesnt descend from fvwm. it just sohappens i hacked ON fvm (made
fvwm-xpm) before i made enlightenment. enlightenment 0.1 and on is and was always totally original
code (rewritten for 0.14, and again for 0.17).
nice.. i had unchecked feeling of oneshot tight code programming base setuping e17 for my tablet. still
despite proles E17 still somewhat pack of utilites with no mainstream target optimized ui. i hope devs
will add prole based needed options as priority development tasks and add features in all
components. based on my exp with tablet prole it still needs a lot of external tools to be task-ready
deployment solution(despite some options avaiable in separate E17 components(like touch scrolling)
but it limits other options and half-avaiable or no-avaiable to other E17/noE17 systems).
Carsten Haitzler
July 22, 2013 at 2:54 am
SunnyDrake
July 22, 2013 at 1:06 pm
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Wow, E17 uses surprising less memory. If E17 uses less memory than LXDE, whats the point of using
LXDE? I always thought that Enlightment was bloated because of its fancy graphics.
And for XFCE, it seems this DE saves nothing at all.
Competition is good, so we need all of them: E17, LXDE, XFCE etc.
AC
August 21, 2013 at 4:01 am
netblue30
August 21, 2013 at 10:34 am
Post author
Thanks for taking the time to do a review of all these dierent desktop environments based on memory
usage. I found it really useful and have referred back to the chart several times now before I do a new
install. And you supplying the install command line saved me a bunch of time from having to go nd the
command line myself. This info is vital especially for those who are on VPS hosting.
Keep up the good work
Thanks again!
good info
November 18, 2013 at 9:00 am
Nicolae Crefelean
December 20, 2013 at 7:12 am
1/10/2014 A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops Part 2 | l3net a layer 3 networking blog
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Thanks for taking time to test so many WMs and DEs. It felt a bit weird to see others arguing about the
testing methods considering you cant possibly replicate everyones setup or work habits.
For me, this is denitely a place to come back to look at the gures when trying to install minimalistic
GUI Linux machinse. I just wish it had more screenshots, possibly for each WM/DE.
Great read!
Thanks! I have some more screenshots in the rst article. Not everything got covet however, something
to x in the future.
Thanks for your reply.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
netblue30
December 20, 2013 at 12:57 pm
Post author
Nicolae Crefelean
December 20, 2013 at 3:58 pm
netblue30
December 20, 2013 at 4:10 pm
Post author
PePa
March 4, 2014 at 1:30 am
1/10/2014 A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops Part 2 | l3net a layer 3 networking blog
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Really happy with the low memory usage of MATE. I hope they keep improving this ne environment.

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