Undisputed Desktop Environment - LXDE
 

Let me explain how stupid good LXDE is. If you load a display manager (aka a login manager) + openbox, it take 160MB ram and 279MB cache; all you get is a blank desktop with the ability to right-click and open terminal or app from there.

Now comes LXDE, competently operating at a 36MB download, it takes 165MB RAM and 284MB cache, but its a full desktop. It is magic. LXQT on the other hand takes 234 RAM and 549 Cache. At that kind of RAM usage, you will meant as well go for budgie-desktop-minimal, and most of the gnome dependencies. Not impressed at all with LXQT, it is simply a disappointment. So too is Lubuntu taking 290MB of RAM and 520 MB of cache; absolute shit for the same LXDE. In fact, Lubuntu is so shit you should never download it again. I never thought it would be this terrible. It easily qualifies and achieves last place. Moksha makes 2nd place for being a gem, take 175 MB RAM, 407 MB cache, but is responsive, beautiful and high configurable. It's in a position to overtake LXDE, but just comes a little short. Cinnamon was a small package (60MB) with 400MB ram footprint + 500 or so MB cache, but it is the nicest, most complete desktop; you're getting value for those MBs if you have enough memory (8GB) and some video card. Xubuntu was a 177MB download, and is estimated to occupy 300MB of RAM and 500 MB cache. Mate was a fat, unstable pig; enough said. Enlightenment didn't make the cut; hate it, its ugly, bad visual design; its a shame the programming is good, but visuals unforgiving.

So the best of the lightweights in order:
1. LXDE
2. Moksha
3. Budgie
4. XFCE
5. LXQT
6. Cinnamon
7. Kubuntu (Better value + more stability)
8. Mate
20. Lunbuntu

In so far as login managers( DMs ):
lightdm = 75 MB
lxdm = 500 KB if installed with LXDE (36MB)
sddm = 153 MB
slim = 4 MB

So clearly if you don't intend on using LXDE, slim is the way to go.

Obviously for display server, Xorg (aka X11) is the way to go until wayland matures or gets replaced by something better. The problem with wayland, there's a few but compositing is always enabled. That's an automatic performance hit when it comes to opengl games.

Got a pretty good idea where I'm heading now with Uranium distro.

Why waste resources on a desktop environment if you are looking for lightweight.......just use a window manager. ;)

Not that this is the forum to discuss this, but everything your doing has been noted and done in a distro called LXLE. you can see it at LXLE.net. It is a miser of memory usage. And yes it runs the LXDE desktop.

But I would take fatmac's suggestion. LXDE is liable to see end of life if someone doesn't fork it. They seem, to want to kill it off, in favor of LXQT.

Lol, that was in the post. I compared just using openbox to LXDE, almost no difference; I proved this. That's why LXDE is so good.

Just wait and see, Uranium will be faster, use less memory and come with a completely different set of applications. It will probably be around the same ISO size, and it won't be based on 16.04, it will be based on 18.04.1. Even LXLE is not to my liking. I'm a picky user I guess.

interesting

To each his own.

Well, to be honest I find that KDE takes few resources nowadays. It used to be alot worse. But when I start my machine with KDE desktop up, I have a total of 600mb of ram usage. Hardly problematic. And considering the enourmous power and flexibility of KDE, this is quite a good total tradoff, unless I am running on a very old machine where resources are critical.

In such a case I would rather run a window manager like blackbox or openbox. Another lightweight favourite of mine is Enlightenment, which is more of a desktop than a windows manager.

I have a phenomenal startup time on my machine, even with KDE, and low resource usage. With Enlightenment, this goes down even further. Personally I am very happy and I am not at all considering something like LXDE. Browsing my list of processes by RAM use, KDE processes are far down the list to hogs like Firefox etc:
- Plasmashell 164mb +72mb swap
- Kwin-X11 40mb + 57mb swap
- kded5 8.5mb + 40mb swap
- kded4 5mb + 10mb swap
- a couple of other KDE processes 10mb + 40mb swap


And this is not even at boot. This is with a full desktop with lots of stuff ongoing and a 31 day uptime clock on an old laptop. My CPU clock is at the lowest level 799mhz according to cpupower frequency-info.

My battery in disconnected state has a long battery life left at current system load, despite being half defect:
Battery 0: Discharging, 99%, 03:41:50 remaining
Battery 0: design capacity 5000 mAh, last full capacity 2871 mAh = 57%

This is in line with the expected battery usage at quite a low level.

Ooh, and the power management of my linux/gnu/KDE is fabulous when I am inactive, letting me stay in sleep mode for days if I need. KDE is what controls this behaviour ofcourse, and my settings are quite conservative, so it quickly goes into sleep when I am inactive. Depending if I am connected to main power of not, it is more or less conservative. And I can even set the power management to adapt to my desktop "activities", depending on what I am doing.

All in all KDE provides the best and most powerful desktop independent of operating systems, and the resources usage is not scaring me at the moment. I still prefer KDE4 to KDE5, but KDE5 is better at resource management than KDE4, so it is a fair tradeoff. KDE5 is not missing any huge parts from KDE4, although some functions that I like are still missing.

I do love KDE apps myself, but there is no need for the KDE desktop environment.

I'm like this user. If I'm going for lightweight, I'll use a WM instead of a desktop. I use a desktop because I want ALL the features that a desktop has. LXDE lacks too many of the features that KDE (and honestly many other other more "maintstream" desktops) do. And KDE does, as zeebra points out, run surprisingly lightly on resources anymore for what it delivers. For me, with the improvements to KDE in the 5.12.x series and newer in terms of resource efficiency, there really is no other desktop I'd be willing to consider using anymore. Even my weak little chromebook that I recently got rid of was able to easily handle a full KDE desktop with the improvement in the 5.12.x series. That's saying something given the very humble hardware that machine was working with.

^ it's true:

• you can't compare desktop environments like they all provide the same set of features.
• using a desktop environment, you sort of want it to be heavy - feature-rich that is; i know that there's still a differnece between well-coded and not-so-well-coded (bloat)

that said, i would consider LXDE if i wanted to install some Linux on someone elses old (weak) machine.

I love your passion though, and the great thing about GNU/Linux is that you can choose whatever fits you and your preferences.

Openbox/LXDE can be pretty feature rich, when customized. Here is a link to a video of my setup.

Old Farts Linux

I agree with Tim Miller. When I truly want something lightweight, I don't bother with a desktop environment at all; I simply chose a Window Manager. It depends on the total collection of software you choose, but the last time I compared a bunch of window managers, IceWM did really well. While there is no confusing it with a full desktop environment, it is simple enough to use and easy enough to modify that I personally pick it over other lightweights like JWM, Fluxbox, Openbox, or fvwm, to name a few window managers.

As far as desktops, KDE is rich in features and possibly the most flexible of all, but I don't need all of it; I use LXQT if I want to use some of the same Qt libraries used in KDE; otherwise, instead of GNOME or LXDE I use Xfce if I am working with a GTK+ library, interface, or application.

I agree that in terms of light DE's, LXDE is the best choice but if you are looking for consistent experience and light desktop - XFCE is your choice (I mean if you prefer in-house made components). When I'm using XFCE usually I remove the panels and install docky but this is just for esthetics.

Nowadays I prefer Plasma 5 with minimal install anyway. :)