On Wed, 6 Jan 2010, Charlie Kester wrote:
Assuming you have to use X, you'll want to avoid heavyweight desktop environments like KDE or Gnome. I like tiled window managers like musca or dwm myself, but your skeptics will probably want a more traditional window manager (aka MS-Windows clone) like xfce or openbox.
Hey, xfce is not like Windows, it's fast. If you want really light and Windows-like, icewm. Although last time I tried it, desktop icons--the lifeblood of the typical Windows user--required external programs (idesk) and were a hassle.
When you say "internet (with plugins)" I think you mean Firefox. If this isn't a hard and fast requirement, take a look at some of the more lightweight browsers like Midori, Kazehakase or Arora. (I'd recommend even more lightweight alternatives like surf or elinks, but I don't think your skeptics will approve.)
AdblockPlus and FlashBlock are near requirements for browsing, particularly for slow machines. Maybe they'll work with non-Firefox gecko browsers.
Same for OpenOffice. There are alternatives to each of the apps in the OpenOffice suite that might not have all the same bells and whistles, but will run in much less RAM.
gnumeric is nice for a spreadsheet. May not be particularly lightweight, but lighter than OO.
-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
