Xfce4 and KDE|Gnome Services
 

Hello all

I'm "upgrading" to Xfce (getting used to it's basic usage and administrative tasks). We are getting along pretty well, and I've adopted it as my new window manager. As I'm moving from KDE, I'm still used to some KDE apps/applets (krusader, k3b and others) and both environments cohabit very well; my question is not related to Xfce's usage.

I share the computer with my wife (wich will remain a KDE user).

My question (as I'm the early stage of this "acquaintance") is about performance.

On a fresh, minimalist install with only Xfce4 and Xorg I did notice a overall performance gain in X. But I'm in doubt if running KDE/Gnome services will result on a slow Xfce on the long term.

Why use Xfce if I also run KDE services? If the performance does degradate, why not stick with the "old" KDE?

I was told that KDE core is not sluggish, kwin is what makes KDE more resource consumer.

If one seeks performance gains, will KDE/GNOME services slow down Xfce?

Thanks in advance

Pedro

The KDE services will only start when you log in with KDE or start KDE applications. The KDE services will also shut down themselves if you haven't used any KDE programs for a while.
I do think that your mixed environment with XFce + KDE applications will be faster then a full-blown KDE environment.
How much faster will depend on your machine and what applications you run.

ldp,

The lastest Xfce has an option to start KDE/Gnome services at xsession's start. It is expected to slow down the Xsession boot, but speed up the usage of KDE/Gnome apps that may require KDE or Gnome infrastructure.

The behaviour you described, similar to Java's garbage collector, somewhat contradicts the expected behaviour.

I also think that this "mixed" environment is faster that a full blown KDE, but I have no experience to prove it, and that is what i was asking for.

Thanks for the reply

Pedro

Just for the sake of sharing the information:

Me and my wife are now Xfce compliant :)

I choose to run Xfce as Desktop Environment. As I require KDE/Gnome apps, I've chosen to "Run KDE and Gnome Settings at startup".

The performance gain is awesome, despite of parts of KDE/Gnome being loaded at startup. The annoying stuff relates to file associations, fonts display, color schemes that differ from Evolution to Krusader, for example.

This is a one-go task, switching from gnome-control-center to kcontrol to adjust minor "visual" settings.

All is configured now, and I would definitely recommend such approach.

My next evaluation (I'm seeking pure performance and some UI improvements) will be ROX Filer, as I read that the recipe Xfce + ROX rocks :)

Thanks for following up this thread, btw