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Debian 11 + XFCE

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Abyssos
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Debian 11 + XFCE

#1 Post by Abyssos »

Hello all,

I am loving Debian, and want to install it on my old PC, but I am not sure, because the parameters are not so good :

Motherboard : ASUS K8U-X
RAM : 1.5 GB
CPU : AMD Sempron 3000+ (64 bit, 1800 Mhz)
HDD : Maxtor 160 GB

I am thinking of XFCE, but, I am not sure. Maybe LXQt?

Thank you in advance !

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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#2 Post by Bloom »

Can you install more memory?

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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#3 Post by Abyssos »

On this motherboard I can up to 2 GB max

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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#4 Post by Bloom »

I would say: do it. Every bit of RAM you can get helps. You can do XFCE, but keep in mind that browsers like Firefox and Chromium consume lots of memory when you start opening webpages. Avoid using tabs if memory is low.

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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#5 Post by Abyssos »

Thank you !
The other option is LXQt, but I am not sure about RAM usage, may be the same.

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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#6 Post by Hallvor »

XFCE is about as light as KDE, and I would not use it for an old computer.

I would recommend a window manager. If you want a full desktop, TDE is unbeatable.

Then optimize the browser for low memory usage.
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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#7 Post by Abyssos »

Thanks

I am thinking of LXQt, but I am not sure how light it is.

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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#8 Post by Hallvor »

It was underwhelming the last time I tried it. Again, if you like Qt, TDE...

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=150536
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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#9 Post by seaken64 »

I agree with TDE. It is very good in that amount of RAM.

I have had good results with LXDE. I've had not-so-good results with LXQt.

For less RAM, 1GB or less I use IceWM or Fluxbox. But I usually work with antiX or MX in those cases since they do such a good job of setting up those windows manager systems.

For 2GB XFCE should work fine. But you will have to choose your apps carefully and maybe sacrifice some eye candy type stuff.

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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#10 Post by Abyssos »

seaken64 wrote: 2022-01-17 23:10 I agree with TDE. It is very good in that amount of RAM.

I have had good results with LXDE. I've had not-so-good results with LXQt.

For less RAM, 1GB or less I use IceWM or Fluxbox. But I usually work with antiX or MX in those cases since they do such a good job of setting up those windows manager systems.

For 2GB XFCE should work fine. But you will have to choose your apps carefully and maybe sacrifice some eye candy type stuff.

Seaken64
Is XFCE light than LXQt or they are the same?
My system is with 1.5 GB RAM

Thank you !

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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#11 Post by arzgi »

Hallvor wrote: 2022-01-10 13:17 XFCE is about as light as KDE,
Is this your own observation or do you have some reference?

I swithced from KDE to Xfce years ago, and my experience is that I can use old notebooks fine with Xfce. I know it's not the lightest.

To OP, I would suggest to upgrade to a system which supports more memory.

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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#12 Post by Hallvor »

arzgi wrote: 2022-01-20 14:37 Is this your own observation or do you have some reference?
For instance this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo45bo1jvZI&t=16s

KDE has efficient memory management, but also more feature rich applications, so KDE applications will still use a little more RAM than the XFCE counterparts.

I actually switched from KDE to XFCE many years ago myself because I didn't like KDE4. XFCE was nice, but it was more of a middleweight desktop environment. KDE sucked back then: A laggy crash fest and resource hog. But it has become much more mature, stable and feature rich. As it is now, I wouldn't use anything else, unless the hardware was really old.
To OP, I would suggest to upgrade to a system which supports more memory.
Completely agree. It is better to work a few hours in order to purchase proper working hardware than spending even more hours trying to make the old hardware work decently. A used ThinkPad is cheap - and will last many years.
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Re: Debian 11 + XFCE

#13 Post by canci »

There's also the difference between measurable bloat and perceived bloat, as in a system that runs lean, but just feels sluggish because it doesn't use the resources properly (I'm looking at Gnome that sometimes runs like crap on a modern quad core machine because it can only use 1 CPU core and consists of a lot of sluggish JavaScript programming.

That's a long-winded way of saying: try both on a live CD and see his it feels like to use them.
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