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-   -   Is Debain 7 Wheezy resource intensive? (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/is-debain-7-wheezy-resource-intensive-4175460823/)

Altiris 05-05-2013 03:39 PM

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.

snowday 05-05-2013 04:03 PM

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.

Timothy Miller 05-05-2013 04:08 PM

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.

snowday 05-05-2013 04:09 PM

You should also read the Debian 7 documentation; there is a section on hardware requirements: http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...h03s04.html.en

Altiris 05-05-2013 04:35 PM

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)

snowday 05-05-2013 04:40 PM

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...

Altiris 05-05-2013 04:50 PM

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?

Ormu 05-05-2013 04:57 PM

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.

snowday 05-05-2013 04:58 PM

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."

guyonearth 05-06-2013 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Altiris (Post 4945592)
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.

Timothy Miller 05-06-2013 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ormu (Post 4945596)
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.

jens 05-06-2013 01:13 PM

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.

k3lt01 05-06-2013 03:25 PM

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).

Altiris 05-07-2013 01:50 PM

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!

EDDY1 05-07-2013 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Altiris (Post 4945584)
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/


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