Desktop Suggestions?

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Fred Barclay
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Desktop Suggestions?

Post by Fred Barclay »

First, let me give a little background. I have an old ( I believe around 10 years) s7410n machine that I have been running Mint 17 Cinnamon on. I notice that it seemed slow and, especially in Firefox, it would hang up and occasionally crash. So I did a bit of research and found that Cinnamon is rather hardware-intensive. I also read that xfce is a better desktop for older machines as it supposedly runs "lighter". I ended up reinstalling Mint 17 with the xfce desktop.
Now I'm finding that xfce doesn't seem to run any faster than Cinnamon. I'm also finding that I don't really like xfce (sorry, all xfce fans). So I'm probably going back to Cinnamon as my desktop. Is there any way to speed it up? any "tricks of the trade" that any of you have found to help it run a bit better?
My other choice is to go with MATE. I've tried it a little and did like it--not as much as Cinnamon, but close. So if any of you have tried both MATE and Cinnamon and have a preference regarding speed and stability, please let me know that also. As above, any hacks that help it run better would especially be appreciated. Or if you can only give me your opinion, I'd like that too.
Thanks a lot!
Fred :D
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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jimallyn
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Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by jimallyn »

In order of increasing use of resources, I believe it's XFCE, Mate, Cinnamon, and KDE. You could try Mate and see if that works any better. One thing that can drastically slow Mint down is if you don't have the correct video driver installed and it has to use software rendering.
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Fred Barclay
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Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by Fred Barclay »

jimallyn wrote:In order of increasing use of resources, I believe it's XFCE, Mate, Cinnamon, and KDE. You could try Mate and see if that works any better. One thing that can drastically slow Mint down is if you don't have the correct video driver installed and it has to use software rendering.
Well I'm glad I never tried KDE! Thanks!
How can I tell if it's running in software rendering mode or if I need to install a video driver?
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richyrich

Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by richyrich »

Fred, typing the following in the terminal will give you a complete overview of your system and hardware :

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz
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Fred Barclay
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Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by Fred Barclay »

This is what it put out:

Code: Select all

fred@Matthew22-32 ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: Matthew22-32 Kernel: 3.13.0-39-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.2) 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.11.6 (Gtk 2.24.23) Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Machine:   System: HP Pavilion 061 product: ER189AA-ABA s7410n version: 0nx1104RE101ONYX200
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Onyx2 version: 1.xx Bios: American Megatrends version: 3.06 date: 10/28/2005
CPU:       Single core Intel Celeron M (-UP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (nx sse sse2) bmips: 3395.61 clocked at 1697.809 MHz 
Graphics:  Card: Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@59.8hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 915G x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card: Intel 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-39-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82562ET/EZ/GT/GZ - PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller 
           driver: e100 ver: 3.5.24-k2-NAPI port: e400 bus-ID: 02:08.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8192SU 802.11n WLAN Adapter driver: r8712u usb-ID: 0bda:8174
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (2.3% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST3250823AS size: 250.1GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 101G used: 5.4G (6%) fs: ext4 
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 159 Uptime: 11 min Memory: 616.2/993.7MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4 
Can you help me with this?
I should also mention I am running Kali Linux 1.0.9a which uses Gnome 2.x. It is a good deal faster than Mint, and I would like to install it as a secondary desktop in Mint.
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"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."
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JohnBobSmith

Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by JohnBobSmith »

If kali using gnome 2 works great, then MATE is your best option for the Mint desktop. I dont understnad how XFCE is slow, as I use it at lightning speed. My desktop runs a debian XFCE, so thats probably why it still runs fast. Cinnamon will bog down ones system if its on old hardware. My desktop from ~07 couldnt handle cinnamon very well. That single core processor is probably whats dragging you down the most, though integrated graphics are not the greatest.

So go ahead and try out MATE desktop for now. Or, if you're really tech savy, try just a window manager and then add in plugins (panels, menus, etc) as needed. That way you wont have the full, heavier DE. A debian install may also be for you, as you can really tweak the inner workings of the OS. And if that isnt enough tweaking for you, try Arch or Gentoo.

Have fun! :)
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xenopeek
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Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by xenopeek »

You might be going the wrong way around this; Xfce, MATE, KDE, or Cinnamon won't make a world of difference I think. KDE and Cinnamon also use resources of your graphics card, while Xfce and MATE hardly use the power of your graphics card. But that doesn't affect CPU or RAM available for your applications. If you want to see a dramatic improvement in performance there are a few things you could do:

- I might be reading it wrong, but do you have a swap partition? For less than 1 GB RAM probably wise to have 1.5 GB swap or more. In any case, lower your swappiness value so that swap is used closer to little RAM being available for program--by default it might be set too high, making swap be active while a lot of memory is still available for programs. See these tips: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/328

- Instead of Xfce, MATE, KDE, or Cinnamon, look to a truly lightweight desktop. LXDE is at least more lightweight, but to go truly lightweight you'll have to do away with using a desktop environment and just use a window manager (like openbox, fluxbox, or other such very lightweight options).

- Firefox isn't the most lightweight browser either. You might look to using more lightweight programs. Instead of Firefox, for example try Midori.
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Fred Barclay
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Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by Fred Barclay »

xenopeek: yes, I have a 5GB swap (a little big, I know). My swappiness is set as 5. I'm trying MATE now, will update in a few. Seems to be quite good.
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Fred Barclay
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Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by Fred Barclay »

Ok, so MATE seems to be pretty good. I do have a few problems, though.
(1) When I am using the respective file manager for Cinnamon and Xfce, I can choose to "Show hidden files" under the View menu and it will not reset when I clear the file manager. In MATE, it will show the hidden files only for each time the window is open. If I close the window and reopen it, I have to choose to view the hidden files again.

(2) I can't seem to open directories as root. I'm used to right-clicking and choosing to open as root, but MATE won't give me that option--unless, of course, I use sudo in terminal. How do I do this in MATE without using terminal?

Also, I did really like the screen savers in Xfce. Can I get them for MATE?
Thanks!
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"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."
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xenopeek
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Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by xenopeek »

Fred Barclay wrote:How do I do this in MATE without using terminal?
If for some reason it doesn't work for you through Caja's own menu, you can press Alt+F2 and give the command: gksudo caja
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Fred Barclay
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Re: Desktop Suggestions?

Post by Fred Barclay »

xenopeek wrote:
Fred Barclay wrote:How do I do this in MATE without using terminal?
If for some reason it doesn't work for you through Caja's own menu, you can press Alt+F2 and give the command: gksudo caja
Figured out how to do this with MATE, just a little different than in Cinnamon or Xfce.
Can you help on the first question? I would prefer not having to select "show hidden files" every time. No worries if you can't, though. Thanks for all so far. :D
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"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."
- Albert Einstein
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