Eric Boutilier wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Oct 2006, Dave Miner wrote:
>> Garrett D'Amore wrote:
>>> Glynn Foster wrote:
>>>> Hey,
>>>>
>>>> Garrett D'Amore wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I realize that a lot of focus is being spent on JDS 3/gnome, and that
>>>>> this is largely a good thing for the end user.
>>>>>
>>>>> However, I am interested, also, in having a "lightweight" desktop
>>>>> environment, suitable for use by system administrators to access gui
>>>>> tools on machines that are otherwise not normally used as a desktop.
>>>>> (Think of an NFS server somewhere. It is useful to be able to run
>>>>> smc
>>>>> and such tools, without paying the full price of Gnome.)
>>>>>
>>>>> The requirements for such an environment would not be dissimilar to
>>>>> those required for graphical suninstall -- a basic window manager
>>>>> like
>>>>> mwm or dtwm would be adequate. I'd be even happier if we got
>>>>> something
>>>>> like xfce4, which was open source, into such as an environment
>>>>> (but then
>>>>> again, I use xfce4 on my primary desktop).
>>>>>
>>>> Sounds good to me - maybe it's something you'd like to consider
>>>> championing?
>>>> While it's probably a good business case for Sun to support any
>>>> more desktops
>>>> than we currently do [1], we could consider doing something like
>>>> this in the
>>>> companion CD?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Glynn
>>>>
>>>> [1] And after CDE moves away, I'd far rather capture that space and
>>>> reduce
>>>> the number of CD's in a Solaris install than add another
>>>> desktop env
>>>>
>>>
>>> I have no idea if I can champion anything at all. But see my earlier
>>> post with respect to "environments". At this point I would be strongly
>>> in favor of picking up fvwm a basic Window Manger (not a whole desktop
>>> environment) and putting it in the basic install (the same place that
>>> twm is found) so that suninstall etc. can make use of it. I would
>>> _not_
>>> like this on a separate companion CD, because at that point it loses
>>> most of its advantages (sysadmins can't "count on it being there", and
>>> Sun can't use it for suninstall, etc.)
>>>
>>
>> I'm doubtful that we're interested in it for Solaris installation.
>> We're moving in the direction of providing a full Gnome desktop instead
>> that lets you try things out before installing or while the install is
>> happening. Other distributions might make other choices, I suppose, but
>> that's what we're looking at for Sun's.
>
> Along those lines, what about isolating GNOME's window manager as Garrett
> asked about yesterday (see below). Is it feasible?
>
> Eric
>
> On Tue, 24 Oct 2006, Garrett D'Amore wrote:
> == (Possibly the basic window manager from gnome would work too,
> == as long as we only start up the window manager and not all
> == the other gobbeldy-gook associated with gnome. I haven't
> == looked lately, so I have no idea how tightly integrated the
> == window manager in gnome is to the rest of the desktop.) ...
FYI, I found that even isolated, metacity sucked up about 67M size and
10M rss. The "size" was more than 6X its nearest competitor of the
options I tested. (This is what some people like to call "bloatware".)
I was pretty surprised by that result, btw. Right now I'm a big fan of
fvwm as an approach, because its size is ~2.9M rss/4.6M size, and it
provides the basic facilities we need, plus a lot of extras that can be
_optionally_ enabled (at run time, by running helper applications). It
also can provide the basic Motif L&F that we have historically had.
-- Garrett
--
Garrett D'Amore, Principal Software Engineer
Tadpole Computer / Computing Technologies Division,
General Dynamics C4 Systems
http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/
Phone: 951 325-2134 Fax: 951 325-2191
