Re: [tlug] fanless pcs

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2018-07-04 19:21 +0900 (Wed), Benjamin Kowarsch wrote:

> On 4 July 2018 at 17:36, Curt Sampson wrote:
> 
> > You have likely decided to start using a larger desktop system or are
> > running more applications.
> 
> No. The only thing I decided was to choose defaults when installing the OS.

You started making decisions when you chose to use a particular
distribution. You continued when you selected the desktop system to
use, if your distribution offers a choice. You can do things whatever
way you want, of course, but if you have an old computer (or even if
you don't, but you're concerned about resource usage) and you can't be
bothered to do a quick web search about the desktop systems and
distros designed to be low-resource, your problems are of your own
making.

> A very long time ago, I spent days and days installing system
> software by trying to deselect stuff... I have long come to the
> conclusion that this was a waste of my time and I have since come to
> go along with whatever the OS installer suggests as a default.

Well, you'll be glad to know that nobody here is suggesting you try to
deselect stuff; in fact I'm strongly recommending against it. Just
install Xubuntu or Lubuntu, or select XFCE when you install Debian, or
use the Fedora XFCE spin if you've got a strong preference for the Red
Hat side.

> But, I simply look at the published memory requirements or
> recommendations of the OS distributor/vendor for their default
> install.

The Xubuntu minimum recommended memory is 512 MB.

> Now if ALL the applications I want to use also become as memory
> hungry as VS Code, and any convenient alternative applications, too,
> then we might say that the applications have obsoleted a memory
> constrained machine.

Given that very few people find a machine useful without a modern web
browser, and those sorts of graphical apps have been the applications
that have been growing by far the most rapidly, I'm going to stick
with the problem being application driven. Rxvt has hardly grown at
all in 15 years, and Vim's increase is trivial compared to Firefox.

I just can't figure how when a browser is using 2.5 GB of memory and
the entire rest of the system, with lots of terminals and Vim sessions
open, is using less than 700 MB, you figure the OS is the problem.

cjs
-- 
Curt J. Sampson      <cjs@example.com>      +81 90 7737 2974

To iterate is human, to recurse divine.
    - L Peter Deutsch