On 2025-08-22 20:00, Arun Khan wrote:
Keith,
My responses interleaved below.
On Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 1:21 PM Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
<[email protected]> wrote:
Arun,
You mentioned you are using Mint XFCE. Mint, if I recall correctly,
is
an Ubuntu derivative ( is that the correct word?). That I like!!
The default Linux Mint XFCE is a derivative of Ubuntu XFCE with Mint's
UI tweaks. FWIW there is a Debian derivative called LMDE
All of my hardware is old. I think all of it will run Kubuntu.
Define 'old' :) In my mind these factors come into play, a) CPU, b)
Storage type, c) RAM, d) Network (Wired, Wireless).
Although KDE (Kubuntu) has shed quite a bit of bloat, it requires more
system resources than XFCE.
I have repurposed HP/Dell/Lenovo thin clients circa 2015-2017 era (AMD
CPU 2-4 cores, 1.8 GHz, 8GB RAM, 1GB NIC, 32GB SATA SSD) with LM XFCE.
This is sufficient to run Firefox (5-7 open tabs), LibreOffice Suite,
and a bunch of CLI tools (Bash scripts)
My main two machines are probably over 10 years old.
Both have i5's with 16GB RAM, and SSD drives. My daily is running
Kubuntu 24.04 and the other one is running Proxmox and is dormant. I
have several others that are not in use and have been upgraded to SSD...
I have a laptop that is running Win10, it has an i3, 16B RAM, an SSD and
a spinner. I anticipate it will be running Kubuntu by the end of the
year. I do not have the energy I used to have so I might opt to extend
Win10 since it it doing what I need it to do.
All my boxes are hardwired.
Here is the bottom line. I first heard of Linux around 1998 and went
out and got a box set. I like Linux. I have some LAMP configuration
skills. I am a PHP developer. I have a YouTube channel & a blog. I've
learned a lot. I have 57 videos on my channel. It experiences much
less activity than I would have expected. I think all PHP devs should
learn how to setup a lamp stack so they can use one or more hypervisors.
Apparently that opinion is not shared with my intended audience. I'm
getting subscribers but little watch time. I love Linux and consider it
a must have skill as a PHP developer. Seems my audience does not share
my point of view.
People post to the list that they are doing all this stuff in their home
lab. I was considering going that route. Now I am thinking of a thin
client or repurposed old hardware running Linux. Everything would be in
the cloud. A moderate Chromebook would do the job. Canva has a video
editor that might meet my needs. I use the AWS S3 PHP SDK for backups.
I use AI to help me with blog posts... etc I can use shared hosting for
development.
I said all of this to state I do not think I need all that much
resources locally. I kind of feel like a minimalist hippy and that is
the reason I am attracted to desktops like XFCE. I understand these
desktops are fully functional. The only difference is the eye candy has
been removed. It this correct?
I am old so if I were to buy a new computer I would go with something
that has 32G RAM, maybe 6 cores and 12 threads, and a large SSB. That
might be the last computer I ever buy. Of course if I wait 2 - 5 years
this style of computer might be available on the used channels.
Lubuntu (LXQt) is another good candidate for computers with lesser
hardware resources. The UX is not as polished as XFCE (GTK)
I am interested in XFCE. I played with it maybe 30 years ago.
Try a 'live' session. You can customize quite a few items, you may end
up liking it :)
Sounds interesting.
Are you limited in installing apps that run on your desktop?
Most 3rd party apps should work assuming their author provides it in a
package form (DEB, Snap, Flatpak) because they will pull in the
library dependencies.
Keep in mind anything that requires more computation, storage, or
memory resources, may slow down your user experience.
Thanks!!
Keith
HTH
--
Arun Khan
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