[vox-tech] Installing a desktop upon my laptop

[Karsten M. Self]

on Tue, Sep 28, 2004 at 12:18:13AM -0700, Bill Kendrick (nbs at sonic.net) wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 28, 2004 at 12:06:12AM -0700, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> <snip>
> >   - WinXP local login is 21 seconds to show desktop, and 40 seconds
> >     before login-time processes have all launched.
> 
> Tell me about it.  Many a morning, I walk into the office, hit the power
> button, and then hit the restroom or go get a coffee.  A fast laptop running
> XP is frustratingly slow to boot compared to even KDE on my slow desktop!

I'll note that I'm distringuishing XP login from boot.  The 21 and 40
above are time, after hitting "OK" on a logon screen, before the desktop
actually appears.  Late-model Toshiba laptops, pretty speedy all
considered.

Boot time, independent of that (time from power-on to looking at logon
dialog) is relatively fast.  Faster, certainly, than my typically
running-*way*-too-many-daemons GNU/Linux boxen.

But it's the logon itself that bogs.  Network logon moreso.  Network
logon when others are doing similarly, worse yet.  Oh, and logging *of*
takes pretty much *just* as long, since you're transferring boatloads of
data back across the network.

GNU/Linux performance here is far faster.  And my typical usage is
"unlock xscreensaver and run" which takes all of a second or two.
 
> The fastest I've seen any time lately has been a basic WindowMaker or
> IceWM launch.  It's insane!

:-)

I'm sort of the Bally Gum of windowmanagers.  I collect 'em all.  Tried
most of them over the years.  Soft spots for twm (my first real Unix
desktop) and fvwm (my second was an MWM abortion from HP called VUE,
later CDE).  Both are light and configurable out the wazoo.  Of the full
"desktop" suites, KDE edges out GNOME IMO on a number of points, best
expressed by googling "jeff waugh in his own words".  For kids and
n00bs, XFCE4 is light and friendly.  ICEWM is lightweight and pretty
sane, though a bit clunky looking IMO.  E is, well, E.  GNOME is
annoyng, cloying, in your face, and a cancer.  The *boxes and saw*s are
ok, but don't really do anything.  

My heart belongs to WindowMaker:  clean, fast, light, adaptable, highly
keyboard driven, out-of-your-face, and prefs portable with only a couple
of files readily copied between boxen.
 
> But, as an app-lover, I've come accustom to Konqueror and the rest of
> KDE, so I live with the slower login process.  It's not like I _ever_
> log out of my Linux box.  I just lock the screen and turn off the
> monitor. :^)

Have to say that while I generally prefer the look of Gtk over Qt
(particularly some of the candy KDE themes), I'm finding KDE apps more
usable these days.  Particularly as the GNOME disease starts making
applications *completely* unusable:  Nautilus, Galeon (still using
1.3.15 on one box, Firefox on antoher, Konq when I boot Knoppix, and
pining for 1.2.13....), Pan.  Not sure which others.


Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
    Reform three-strikes:  stop jailing nonviolent offenders.
    http://www.amend3strikes.org/
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