LinuxQuestions.org
Welcome to the most active Linux Forum on the web.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie
User Name
Password
Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question? If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 05-05-2013, 03:39 PM   #1
Altiris
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2013
Posts: 556

Rep: Reputation: Disabled
Is Debain 7 Wheezy resource intensive?


Not sure if many of you remember but I posted about how I was going to install Debain on my fathers old PC so he can try out. Debain 7 Wheezy has been released and it appears that it uses the GNOME version that Fedora 18 uses (which in my expierence uses a lot resources and is the one that has all of the windows in the activities tab).

This is going to be a problem for me, can I install another version of GNOME on it and still have all of the features? Would the only alternative now be Linux Mint Debain with MATE or something?

Thanks, guys, I havent found any youtube videos with reviews of Debain 7 since its release.
 
Old 05-05-2013, 04:03 PM   #2
snowday
Senior Member
 
Registered: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,667

Rep: Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411
You need to tell us the computer's hardware specs if you want a meaningful answer.

Debian 7 has dozens of desktop environments and windows managers: Gnome, KDE, Xfce, LXDE, Openbox, Fluxbox, Ratpoison, Awesome, etc. to fit every need/preference. If you choose, Gnome, the version is Gnome 3.4.2, which is similar to that used in Fedora 17.
 
Old 05-05-2013, 04:08 PM   #3
Timothy Miller
Moderator
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Arizona, USA
Distribution: Debian, EndeavourOS, OpenSUSE, KDE Neon
Posts: 4,001
Blog Entries: 26

Rep: Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520
If you're comfortable enough using apt and getting connected via the CLI, you can do a netinstall which will give you only the ABSOLUTE essentials, then build Debian with any WM/DE that you choose. That's how I do since I prefer KDE, but dislike many of the KDE-suite apps (such as kmail, kopete), so I find it takes less time to do a netinstall and build it as I want than to install the default Debian (or the default Debian KDE respin) and remove everything I dislike.
 
Old 05-05-2013, 04:09 PM   #4
snowday
Senior Member
 
Registered: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,667

Rep: Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411
You should also read the Debian 7 documentation; there is a section on hardware requirements: http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...h03s04.html.en
 
Old 05-05-2013, 04:35 PM   #5
Altiris
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2013
Posts: 556

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
Sorry for not specifying before, the PC has a Pentium 4 2.53ghz, 1GB of memory, and more than enough hard drive space (not sure how much but its probably 80+). It also has an Nvidia 6700 video card or something. The problem is I think Debain will be slower and make my dad not want to use it, he is like a die hard windows user so I really need to show him a distro with rather good performance that works with his PC, espicially since this will be the first one he tries.

Ill think of maybe putting LXDE on it but many times for example on CentOS the LXDE UI looks horrible. If it looks somewhat nice in Debain I will give that a try then.

Just, if I put another desktop environment on it, will all of the features still be accessable? (by features I mean options)

Last edited by Altiris; 05-05-2013 at 04:38 PM.
 
Old 05-05-2013, 04:40 PM   #6
snowday
Senior Member
 
Registered: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,667

Rep: Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411
LXDE is basically the same on CentOS and Debian. It looks as good or as bad as you set it up to look.

http://lxde.org/lxappearance_change_look_feel

Xfce is another nice lightweight choice.

If your dad is a die-hard Windows fan, then why not let him use Windows? Why force him to switch to Linux? Probably he just needs a hardware upgrade from his aging Pentium 4; Dell has nice Windows 8 laptops on sale right now for $299 for example...
 
Old 05-05-2013, 04:50 PM   #7
Altiris
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2013
Posts: 556

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
He has Windows Server 2008 trial version on his desktop and its really slow and never uses it because of this. He already has a work laptop and even if he didnt he doesnt want to spend money buying a new one. Im not forcing him to try it lol, I asked him if he wants to try it and he said okay, so im trying to get a first impression. I could always go and use Debain 6.0....but I like using the latest versions.

I never really messed around with LXDE so I dont know as to har far I can go with setting up, how would XFCE look, the default way? XFCE having that bottom bar is probably a no no, is there a way to disable that?

Last edited by Altiris; 05-05-2013 at 04:51 PM.
 
Old 05-05-2013, 04:57 PM   #8
Ormu
Member
 
Registered: Jun 2011
Posts: 92

Rep: Reputation: 15
That computer should be more than enough to run Debian + Gnome (any version). I have a computer with AMD Athlon K7 (500MHz) CPU and 128MB of RAM and Squeeze+Gnome is well usable (ok, web browsing and stuff may be sluggish but the desktop itself is fine). I don't know if Wheezy ships with a heavier version of Gnome but it still shouldn't be too heavy.

KDE might be another story, especially if you have all eye-candy on and don't have proper driver for your GPU.

Last edited by Ormu; 05-05-2013 at 04:58 PM.
 
Old 05-05-2013, 04:58 PM   #9
snowday
Senior Member
 
Registered: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,667

Rep: Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411Reputation: 1411
I personally use and recommend Linux Mint Xfce; it has a nice default configuration (not the standard Xfce with the weird half-bar on the bottom).

See here for some ideas what you can do with Xfce: http://xfce-look.org/

Debian's philosophy is to give you the "vanilla" version of each desktop environment, as designed by the upstream developers; they do not put a lot of time/effort into customizing the interface like Ubuntu or Mint do. Debian users tend to see this as "a feature, not a bug."
 
Old 05-06-2013, 12:22 PM   #10
guyonearth
Member
 
Registered: Jun 2012
Location: USA
Distribution: Ubuntu
Posts: 424

Rep: Reputation: 83
Quote:
Originally Posted by Altiris View Post
He has Windows Server 2008 trial version on his desktop and its really slow and never uses it because of this. He already has a work laptop and even if he didnt he doesnt want to spend money buying a new one. Im not forcing him to try it lol, I asked him if he wants to try it and he said okay, so im trying to get a first impression. I could always go and use Debain 6.0....but I like using the latest versions.

I never really messed around with LXDE so I dont know as to har far I can go with setting up, how would XFCE look, the default way? XFCE having that bottom bar is probably a no no, is there a way to disable that?
What? Why does he have Windows Server installed on a desktop? Who made that decision? It needs around 8 gigs to run smoothly, and it's not something you should be using on a workstation. Just install Debian, it works fine, and will work a lot better than that Server installation, even with 1 gig of RAM.
 
Old 05-06-2013, 12:33 PM   #11
Timothy Miller
Moderator
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Arizona, USA
Distribution: Debian, EndeavourOS, OpenSUSE, KDE Neon
Posts: 4,001
Blog Entries: 26

Rep: Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520Reputation: 1520
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ormu View Post
That computer should be more than enough to run Debian + Gnome (any version). I have a computer with AMD Athlon K7 (500MHz) CPU and 128MB of RAM and Squeeze+Gnome is well usable (ok, web browsing and stuff may be sluggish but the desktop itself is fine). I don't know if Wheezy ships with a heavier version of Gnome but it still shouldn't be too heavy.

KDE might be another story, especially if you have all eye-candy on and don't have proper driver for your GPU.
Wheezy defaults to Gnome 3, but has a Gnome-fallback (I think that's what it's called, maybe gnome-classic?) that's mostly the same as Gnome 2.
 
Old 05-06-2013, 01:13 PM   #12
jens
Senior Member
 
Registered: May 2004
Location: Belgium
Distribution: Debian, Slackware, Fedora
Posts: 1,463

Rep: Reputation: 299Reputation: 299Reputation: 299
Wheezy's GNOME 3 is v3.4 with some parts/fixes back-ported from later versions.

In GDM you have the choice to select either:
*GNOME (GTK3 +GNOME Shell + Mutter and heavily relying on your GPU).
*GNOME-Classic (GTK3 +a very basic GNOME 3, based on gnome-fallback).

XFCE (GTK2) works well for those seeking a less heavy GTK environment and can look like anything ("GTK2-only" is in-my-very-very-very-humble opinion doomed to die though).

LXDE is an even more light-weight GTK-desktop (GTK2, Openbox, less easy to tweak in the GUI than XFCE)

PS: If you go easy+lightweight, consider using something like Tint2 with openbox and set it up like a "normal" desktop.

Last edited by jens; 05-06-2013 at 01:54 PM.
 
Old 05-06-2013, 03:25 PM   #13
k3lt01
Senior Member
 
Registered: Feb 2011
Location: Australia
Distribution: Debian Wheezy, Jessie, Sid/Experimental, playing with LFS.
Posts: 2,900

Rep: Reputation: 637Reputation: 637Reputation: 637Reputation: 637Reputation: 637Reputation: 637
Standard Gnome and KDE installs are to a certain extent. XFCE, LXDE are much lighter. I personally run MATE mostly, use the others to test things on, and find it is a nice little DE but it is not official (yet).
 
Old 05-07-2013, 01:50 PM   #14
Altiris
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2013
Posts: 556

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
OHHH DUH, I forgot about Debain Wheezy with MATE. Thanks man you're a life saver. Idk why he has Windows server on that he just likes servers, and I didn't really want to give him something ubuntu based, again Debain to me feels more like a "server" distro or at least that's what it is used for many times and its probably more stable than Ubuntu so as a first try I want him to try something rock solid but also very light MATE will be perfect thanks!
 
Old 05-07-2013, 07:52 PM   #15
EDDY1
LQ Addict
 
Registered: Mar 2010
Location: Oakland,Ca
Distribution: wins7, Debian wheezy
Posts: 6,841

Rep: Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649Reputation: 649
Quote:
Originally Posted by Altiris View Post
Sorry for not specifying before, the PC has a Pentium 4 2.53ghz, 1GB of memory, and more than enough hard drive space (not sure how much but its probably 80+). It also has an Nvidia 6700 video card or something. The problem is I think Debain will be slower and make my dad not want to use it, he is like a die hard windows user so I really need to show him a distro with rather good performance that works with his PC, espicially since this will be the first one he tries.

Ill think of maybe putting LXDE on it but many times for example on CentOS the LXDE UI looks horrible. If it looks somewhat nice in Debain I will give that a try then.

Just, if I put another desktop environment on it, will all of the features still be accessable? (by features I mean options)
If your dad is using xp then he will find that it is going to be unsupported, not exactly sure but I think in the next few months.
As far as for running Debian wheezy you may experience some lag time with gnome3, but you can get debian cd with different desktop. You can try the XFCE, LXDE or kde cd listed here. http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.0.0/i386/iso-cd/
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Isn't Daemon/Application Logging resource intensive? naf546 Programming 5 08-24-2012 06:14 AM
Data-Intensive Computations itnaa Linux - Hardware 4 05-25-2008 10:58 PM
kwlan very slow and resource intensive after activating roaming profiles for wpa_supp scheidel21 Linux - Wireless Networking 0 08-25-2007 10:42 AM
Desktop Environments & Window Managers (the ones that are less resource intensive) aitzim Linux - Newbie 5 06-13-2005 09:56 PM
FC3 seems very CPU-intensive deadmilkman Fedora 6 12-30-2004 05:04 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:43 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration