speed difference: xfce vs. console?
 

I want to run my linux server in a virtual machine on an already slow computer. Reason I'm not installing the server on MY machine is that the VM will be moved multiple times, so it's gotta be portable.

So, the linux distro's gotta be balls-fast. I'd "like" a desktop (obviously xfce here instead of kde/gnome), but i'm willing to learn terminal administration if the performance difference in xfce vs. no xfce is substantial. Heck, I'm even willing to compile my own kernel if that makes a big enough difference (although i don't know how that will play in on a portable VM running on different machines).

So 2 questions:
1) how much faster is a console-based linux than one with xfce?
2) in either case, which minimalist distro would you recommend as the fastest? i know it's a crap questions, and i've done my fair share of googling.... i've seen a lot of arch and gentoo, but i want your opinions :)

xfce is pretty lightweight, so I can't see why it should make your system slow (except you use like 48MB of ram ;-) ). I've been running it on 350MHz machines and can't see any substantial difference in speed with or without it (apache).

of course you can always switch the runlevel to console mode and only use X when you really need it.

If you want a desktop, there are quicker ones out there than XFCE (which is considered by some to be quite bloated in itself!). There's IceWM, fluxbox, Enlightenment, JWM, etc. How much faster is difficult to quantify, but I ran Slackware on a Intel Centrino 500MHz with 64MB SDRAM, and even running fluxbox, it was a little sluggish; running it from the command line, it felt exactly like my main desktop (Intel Pentium M 1.5GHz 512MB DDR). I never tried the others on it, but puppy uses JWM I think, and it's lightning fast!

Try BuddaPup
its a puppy linux with enlightenment as the WM
It is lightning fast
it uses dr17 Enlightenment and 2.17 puppy
I wish I was more experienced, I would make my own version of this combo and distribute it. I may still do that.
http://puppylinux.ca/members/BuddaPup/