[vox] browser comment (again)

[Peter Jay Salzman]

bob,

original reasons
================
originally it was due to stability, hard drive space and packaging
issues.  a year ago, i considered GNOME very unstable.  GNOME and KDE
wanted to install WAY too much stuff, and i had better uses for drive
space.  now that i bought a couple of 80GB drives for very cheap, i have
room to burn.  as for packaging, i like having a smaller system.
updating the system (which debian testing/unstable users do very often)
took too long, and there were too many packages for my mind to keep
track of.   seemed like they were always adding a new library for this
functionality and that functionality.  smaller is better, IMHO.


simple breaks less and is simple to fix
=======================================
then there's the issue of time.  desktop managers (and this is true of
all GUI stuff) work great when they work.  but invariably something
always turns up.  like a setting that mysteriously gets changed, or some
kind of "thing" that happens to make the GUI inconvenient or even non
functional.

by using a plain vanilla window manager like twm (or an eye candy wm
like enlightenment), there's ALOT less to go wrong.  and when something
does go wrong, it's usually simple enough that i don't have to go
hunting on google groups or post a question to vox-tech.  it's kind of
the same principle as a car that has loads of bells and whistle has a
lot less that can go wrong, and when it does go wrong, it's usually much
easier to fix.  GNOME and KDE are really too complicated for me to
understand to my satisfaction.  at least with enlightenment, i can
monkey with the source code and config files and have a ghost of a
chance of knowing what i'm doing.


footprint
=========
but mostly (these days), it's a matter of footprint.  point and click is
great, however, i definitely notice latency when i used GNOME, both
with top and from my own perceptions.  i run some processor intensive
things like my physics simulations which can run for weeks, quake3 and
even latex (latexing a 100 page document with graphics and lots of
\specials's is definitely processor intensive).

i'd like to have point and click, but i don't feel it's important enough
to take away clock cycles from other things.


what it boils down to is that GNOME and KDE definitely provide
conveniences, but in my opinion, i'm more productive without them over
the long haul, and i'm happier with my system without them.

as usual, YMMV.  i'm sure there are arguments against each argument i
detailed.  this is just from my own experiences...

pete



begin Robert G. Scofield <rscofield@afes.com> 
> On Wednesday 30 April 2003 10:58 am, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > 
> > anyway, seems like a very worthwhile browser.  thought i'd share my
> > experience.   
> 
> I'd like you to share why you don't use GNOME or KDE.  Is it because they add 
> instability to Linux?
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
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