Re: [gentoo-user] Suggestions for a minimalistic system

[Vlad Dogaru]

On 1/19/07, b.n. <brullonulla@×××××.com> wrote:
>
> Vlad Dogaru ha scritto:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am recently growing fed up with strongly graphical applications
> > causing my (admittedly quite old) computer to slow down to a crawl. I
> > like the concept of Ratpoison and am thinking of switching to it, but
> > could use a few tips for making the big change.
>
> Buy a couple spare RAM modules. Surely I agree with your will to build a
> minimalistic system, this will help anyway and it's a nice experience,
> but RAM is quite cheap and is the magic elisir that allows outdated
> machines to be still usable -the CPU is rarely a problem, unless you
> often do something quite computationally intensive.


I have 384 megs of RAM and no imediate possibility of buying more. I realise
it is arguably sufficient for many lightweight applications, but, as I
mentioned, it is becoming increasingly frustrating, even with the real power
of Gentoo and Fluxbox (the two have changed my life -- literally).

> I am especially looking for a browser to substitute Firefox (it's great,
> > but quite a memory hog). I like links, what with its graphical
> > capabilities, but it lacks tabs and that's a major downside in my
> > vision. I've tried Conkeror for Firefox, but it's too Emacs-centric (vim
> > person here) and also disables tabs (or maybe it's me -- I couldn't get
> > them to work).
>
> Did you try Dillo? I don't know if it has tabs but it seems *very*
> lightweight.
> Otherwise maybe Opera? people insist in saying it's really fast and
> light (and has tabs:as a matter of fact, Opera invented them!), but I
> personally don't know.


I read up on Dillo and it looks promising. I will try it. As for Opera, I
used it on Windows for quite some time, but at one point I started to be
annoyed by the numerous marginally useful (at least to me) features that got
added. I still regard it as a great browser, comparable to Firefox, but not
what I am looking for.

> Any other tips or nifty programs you could link me to would be greatly
> > appreciated, especially Ratpoison-related; For instance, C-t is too
> > RSI-prone for my taste and conflicts with Firefox's new tab button (I
> > want to switch, but I realise fx could prove irreplaceable, mainly due
> > to the large userbase).
>
> Try to see what purposely lightweight distros like DamnSmallLinux,
> VectorLinux and Puppy Linux install by default, I think you'll have a
> good choice of lightweight packages. However as far as concerning
> ratpoison, I know nothing...
>
> > How's my English? How about my Netiquette?
> > Do mail me if something is wrong with my behaviour. Thank you.
>
> This is going to be the best sign of 2007 :) - I really appreciate this
> kind of approach.


Thanks. I really look forward to constructive critique.

Vlad

-- 
How's my English? How about my Netiquette?
Do mail me if something is wrong with my behaviour. Thank you.