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Here I'm republishing an old blog post of mine originally from September 2012. The article has been slightly improved.
This is part 4 of my desktop testing series. We'll deal with some of the less common desktop environments in this entry which by chance are are all GTK+ based.
For test criteria and details about the basic Arch system used, please refer to the first part of this test:
Linux desktop comparison (pt. 1): Modern GTK+ DEs
GNOME was the most popular Linux desktop before the new version 3 was released. GNOME 2 is quite old now but it is still a standard desktop in several more conservative distributions. And while it is not nearly as common anymore as it once was, it may still be the most widely used DE of this part of our test!
Using mirror from 04/30/2011 (Kernel 2.6.38)
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit dbus xf86-video-vesa gnome
Memory usage right after starting up GNOME 2 (with a second login on tty2) and used disk space after removing pacman cache. Here are the values I got with _cat /proc/meminfo_ and _df_ respectively _df -h_:
Arch Linux + GNOME 2 (2.32) MemTotal: 1028476 KB MemFree: 888080 KB Buffers: 15672 KB Cached: 63488 KB Rootfs: 1299288 / 1.3 GB [RAM used at startup: 140396 / ~137 MB] [Disk space (without base OS): 645000 / 630MB]
ROX is best known for ROX-filer, a widely used file manager. A little less common is the ROX desktop. Like one would expect, ROX-filer is the heart of it, but there are several other parts which together form the ROX DE. In its default shape it is very simplistic - and certainly not nice-looking. But don't be fooled: With a little customization it can look a lot better than it does on this screenshot!
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit dbus dbus-glib virtualbox-archlinux-additions gconf libxxf86vm openbox rox
pacman -U rox-session-0.41.0-5-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U appearance-0.9.1.ml-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-clib-2.1.10-2-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U appfactory-2.1.5.ml-2-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U archive-2.2.git.ml-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U mini-clock-2.0.0.ml-2-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U resolution-0.3.ml-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-edit-2.2-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-font-0.9.2.ml-2-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-keyboard-0.11.1.ml-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-mouse-0.10.1.ml-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-trash-0.3.0.ml-2-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U traylib-0.3.2.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-trasktray-0.7-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U python-pyalsaaudio-0.7-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-volume-0.4.14122008-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U systemtray-n-0.3.2.1.ml-2-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U tasklisk-0.5.ml-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
Memory usage right after starting up ROX (with a second login on tty2) and used disk space after removing pacman cache. Here are the values I got with _cat /proc/meminfo_ and _df_ respectively _df -h_:
Arch Linux + ROX (0.41.0) MemTotal: 1030652 KB MemFree: 955128 KB Buffers: 10084 KB Cached: 36784 KB Rootfs: 1087652 / 1.1 GB [RAM used at startup: 75524 / ~74 MB] [Disk space (without base OS): 433364 / 423MB]
Enlightenment started as a hackable window manager that was amazingly customizable. E16 is the current stable version of that WM. With E17 however so many things have been added that it is no longer considered just a WM but in fact a real DE. E17 is officially in beta stages but it is already pretty stable and used for everyday work by many users. It's offers a very much polished desktop experience.
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit dbus virtualbox-archlinux-additions e-svn
Memory usage right after starting up E17 (with a second login on tty2) and used disk space after removing pacman cache. Here are the values I got with _cat /proc/meminfo_ and _df_ respectively _df -h_:
Arch Linux + E17 (snv-72693) MemTotal: 1030652 KB MemFree: 934808 KB Buffers: 8772 KB Cached: 50312 KB Rootfs: 896992 / 876 MB [RAM used at startup: 95844 / ~94 MB] [Disk space (without base OS): 242704 / 237MB]
Sugar is not really a general-purpose desktop, but rather a DE made for children. It would probably not be known by many people if it wasn't the standard DE on the sub-notebooks of the well-known "One Laptop Per Child" project. It's also available as an optional package in some of the bigger distributions.
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit dbus virtualbox-archlinux-additions python-pygame
pacman -U sugar-base-0.94.0-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
pacman -U python2-xapian-1.2.10-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-datastore-0.94.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U icon-slicer-0.3-5-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-artwork-0.94.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-presence-service-0.90.2-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U hippo-canvas-0.3.1-2-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-toolkit-0.94.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-0.94.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
Memory usage right after starting up Sugar (with a second login on tty2) and used disk space after removing pacman cache. Here are the values I got with _cat /proc/meminfo_ and _df_ respectively _df -h_:
Arch Linux + Sugar (0.94.1) MemTotal: 1030652 KB MemFree: 911100 KB Buffers: 12092 KB Cached: 57340 KB Rootfs: 1272052 / 1.3 GB [RAM used at startup: 119552 / ~117 MB] [Disk space (without base OS): 617764 / 603MB]
GNOME 2 is the biggest DE this time and it's doing a little better than MATE (tested before) in terms of RAM needed. Sugar needs some less memory but it's not a DE many people will want to use, anyway. E17 is beautiful and still rather memory-saving. And the ROX desktop is by far the most frugal one so far when it comes to memory usage!
