XFCE vs ICEWM

[Colin McDermott]

http://www.ubuntulite.org/wiki/index.php?title=Desktop_environment#XFCE_vs_ICEWM
(please do not edit this yet, I beg you)

In Summary XFCE uses 26mb of memory while Icewm uses 5mb (in fairness you would have to add a icon program to icewm (not sure on xfce) which adds 5~7mb) Also you may be able to trim xfce). 

On Firefox and web browsers. I would like to know of real lightweight alternatives. It's bad to say, but Opera is looking close to the best useable alternative. 

Having said that I think that the biggest problem is a MS compatible word processor that is lightweight enough to run on old machines. The current choices are abiword (which is very good but not stable and compatible enough.). Koffice (prefer abiword). PW (haven't used it). Does anyone know a better way around this problem. 

By the way anyone interested in ubuntu lite please send me your email address and ill chuck you on the email list once ive made it (unless someone wants to make a ubuntu lite mailing list. In that case go for it). We should jump off the main list.

>>  From my experience with Window managers form the last few weeks, I 
>>wouldn't recommend xfce as Window Manager for use in an internet cafe:
>>1) The speed gain compared to gnome isn't very high
>>2) It's awfully buggy

>>But I can recommend ICEWM. It's a fast, stable windowmanager. The thing 
>>I don't like is that the menu has to be configured all by yourself, 
>>because ICEWM doesn't import debian-menu like xfce. But if you only need 
>>to run firefox, you can easaly autostart it and there are also a lot of 
>>menueditor's for icewm!!!

>>Oh and I nearly forgot, there's somebody building a lite version of 
>>Ubuntu, but it's still in test phase. I just had a look at my personal 
>>archives and the quicksearch failed. So I'm sorry I can't give you more 
>>detailed information. But when I got a bit more time than right in the 
>>moment, I can search for it again, if you're interested!

Would that be me by any chance? Or is there another?

-- 
Colin McDermott
Reboot Computer Reuse centre
Ubuntu Lite
www.ubuntulite.org
http://groups.google.com.au/group/ubuntu_lite