Re: [seul-edu] Best wm for tiny slow computers?

[Les Richardson <richl@mail.tfsd.sk.ca>]

Of course the answer is....it depends.

If you want to configure multiple stations with a very small somewhat ugly
window manager, fvwm gets the job done. It is smallest and fastest on
basic iron. It certainly is not pretty, but people have been themeing(?)
it, so you can "purdy it up". However it is not "easy" to configure
either. This will give good performance on "toy" hardware.

I have been using GNUStep for a while now (with windowmaker manager), and
it is intermediate in resource "suckage" and is very easy to reconfigure
and add apps to the desktop (although this may be a disadvantage in a
network "terminal type" of setup). I like its look/feel also. Much lighter
weight than KDE/GNOME.

Of course, the time consuming part is experimenting with these setups and
learning how to configure them. This takes time.

Les Richardson
 



On Fri, 1 Feb 2002, Ralph M. Deal wrote:

> Greetings, seulers,
> 
> I am currently working with a school district which is making large
> numbers of antique desktops available to students/parents at very low
> prices, without operating systems of course.
> 
> I have volunteered to work on installing LINUX on these boxes and giving
> workshops for the users.  This presents several dilemmas, the most
> important of which is that I want the users to like LINUX and put some pressure on the school
> system to use it more widely.  The users will be most happy with a gui
> like the MSwindows they are accustomed to.  However, thes are small (16M
> RAM, ca 500M hard disk, no CDROM drives) slow (75MHz is fast in this
> bunch) in which gnome will be sluggish and much to large.
> 
> What, in your experience in similar situations, is the best compromise
> in a window manager to be reasonably fast and small but look familiar to
> students?  Right now I'm using xfce which I use myself but it would be
> nice to have icons representing files and have double clicks thereon to
> open the appropriate program with that file.
> 
> I am using RH 6.2 to keep the size down and trying to minimize the rpms
> included.  I have included the games from 6.2.  I'm planning to use
> abiword and gnumeric as the word processor and spreadsheet but will have
> to ensure that students wanting to turn in diskettes with homework, etc.
> will present files that can be read by the M$ office tools.
> 
> Most of the monitors in this batch are labelled with names not in the RH
> LINUX list of recognized monitors so that will be time-consuming. Any
> suggestions there?
> 
> I'm currently expecting to build a system on a 500M hard drive that I
> can ghost to the others but can only do so for systems with the same
> boards, mice, monitor.
> 
> 	Thanks,  Ralph M. Deal,   retired P.Chemistry prof.
> 		deal@kzoo.edu
> 
> PS How do I get onto the schoolforge mailing list?
>