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BXCracer

Member

Registered: 2008-03-04

Posts: 10

WM for low memory pc

Hello everyone,
I am think of setting up my old pc (intel celeron 1.2 Ghz, 128 mb ram, 8 mb integrated graphics) and I am looking for a lightweight window manager, esspecialy not memory hungry. I am currently thinking about openbox. What do you guys think ? any other suggestions ?

BXC.

litemotiv

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2008-08-01

Posts: 5,026

Re: WM for low memory pc

openbox should work fine with those specs

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Peasantoid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-26

Posts: 928

Website

Re: WM for low memory pc

The *box family is very light and should work well. (Whatever you do, don't go with Xfce/GNOME/KDE.)

If you're into extreme minimalism, try one of the tiling WMs.

cardinals_fan

Member

From: /dev/null

Registered: 2008-02-03

Posts: 248

Re: WM for low memory pc

I like dwm.  If you need a floating WM, give PekWM a shot.

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BXCracer

Member

Registered: 2008-03-04

Posts: 10

Re: WM for low memory pc

What about icewm ? It seems to be quite light.

SpeedVin

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2009-04-29

Posts: 955

Re: WM for low memory pc

openbox should work fine with those specs

+1
Opebox is elegant,lighwieght,fast,flexible,configurable.
What a difreence about *box and tiling WM?
Tiling WM are faster/lighter?

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FallenWizard

Member

From: Vienna/ Austria

Registered: 2007-12-10

Posts: 99

Re: WM for low memory pc

Floating WMs: You can freely move windows around and minimize it

Tiling WMs: All windows are aligned in a grid (You can set windows to floating mode in most of the tiling WMs)

This is a tiling WM for example: http://sandbox.suckless.org/dwm.suckles … 070930.png

Last edited by FallenWizard (2009-06-13 20:06:26)

rocktorrentz

Member

From: Southampton, England

Registered: 2007-08-05

Posts: 141

Re: WM for low memory pc

What about icewm ? It seems to be quite light.

I'm an IceWM user and I love it Go use my icewm-cvs package from the aur! Openbox is also a good choice but I personally prefer IceWM.

arch0r

Member

From: From the Chron-o-John

Registered: 2008-05-13

Posts: 597

Re: WM for low memory pc

i got a P3 (900mhz, ~700mb) running arch. openbox is quite fast but i would recommend a tiling wm especially cause of your "tiny" amount of ram

rocktorrentz

Member

From: Southampton, England

Registered: 2007-08-05

Posts: 141

Re: WM for low memory pc

Getting a 256mb+ stick of ram off ebay for next-to-nothing would also be advisable. The performance increase for most tasks would be very noticeable even with a lightweight wm.

ise

Developer

From: Karlsruhe / Germany

Registered: 2005-10-06

Posts: 404

Website

Re: WM for low memory pc

Have a look at WindowMaker, it's very small but powerful.

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Rydgel

Member

From: France

Registered: 2008-09-04

Posts: 166

Website

Re: WM for low memory pc

evilwm

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: WM for low memory pc

How low do you wanna go ?

dwm or evilwm

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
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SpeedVin

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2009-04-29

Posts: 955

Re: WM for low memory pc

I back to my question tiling WM's are lighter/faster?
How i run my apps becouse in Openbox i got menu. /I solved this
What is lighter FVWM or Openbox.
It's all for this moment thanks for anserws

Last edited by SpeedVin (2009-06-14 17:39:13)

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litemotiv

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2008-08-01

Posts: 5,026

Re: WM for low memory pc

I back to my question tiling WM's are lighter/faster?
How i run my apps becouse in Openbox i got menu. /I solved this
What is lighter FVWM or Openbox.
It's all for this moment thanks for anserws

some tiling wm's are really light (dwm is only 1MB) but openbox should be light enough, it's only a couple of MB too. with these sizes it doesn't really matter anymore, just use what you like most.

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ntowakbh

Member

Registered: 2009-06-04

Posts: 29

Re: WM for low memory pc

Use what you like the most.  But I definitely suggest Openbox.  Very customizable, though it does have a bit of a learning curve, if you've never used something like it before.

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SpeedVin

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2009-04-29

Posts: 955

Re: WM for low memory pc

Thanks for anserws i give musca a chance and it's really fast and ligweight
This is what i want

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moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: WM for low memory pc

You can make app launcher menus with dzen2 and use that with dwm. There's also dmenu.
Tiling WMs are not lighter by definition, they just operate differently. And most just happen to be pretty light...

I would really suggest dwm, you can use that as a floating wm if you don't like tiling that much.

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

eol

Member

Registered: 2009-05-30

Posts: 23

Re: WM for low memory pc

+1 for dwm and dmenu.
dmenu is much more than a simple applauncher,
it integrates very well in scripts specially with selecting.

Lexion

Member

Registered: 2008-03-23

Posts: 510

Re: WM for low memory pc

evilwm, wmii, dwm.  All are low mem (less than 1 mb) and will serve you well.  Btw, evilwm and wmii both require almost no configuration and will work out-of-the-box.

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SpeedVin

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2009-04-29

Posts: 955

Re: WM for low memory pc

evilwm, wmii, dwm.  All are low mem (less than 1 mb) and will serve you well.  Btw, evilwm and wmii both require almost no configuration and will work out-of-the-box.

Hello
You forgot musca she or he it 400KB-500KB of ram and work out of the box the best choice is musca with dmenu (I use that option).
BTW. I build verylight (lightest) desktop and I serach for light music palyer without many depencies (less than Audacious2) he can be console palyer ,but if you requiere one you must calculate server+client depnecies.
And i search for File Manger that is lighter/faster than PCMANFM can be console(MC) is there any?

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moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: WM for low memory pc

evilwm, wmii, dwm.  All are low mem (less than 1 mb) and will serve you well.  Btw, evilwm and wmii both require almost no configuration and will work out-of-the-box.

Hello
You forgot musca she or he it 400KB-500KB of ram and work out of the box the best choice is musca with dmenu (I use that option).
BTW. I build verylight (lightest) desktop and I serach for light music palyer without many depencies (less than Audacious2) he can be console palyer ,but if you requiere one you must calculate server+client depnecies.
And i search for File Manger that is lighter/faster than PCMANFM can be console(MC) is there any?

you said it yourself - mc

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

SpeedVin

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2009-04-29

Posts: 955

Re: WM for low memory pc

But i will do with him all things i will do with PCMANFM?
Meaby link .png files with feh ,link .mp3 files with Audacious it's hard to do that?

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moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: WM for low memory pc

But i will do with him all things i will do with PCMANFM?
Meaby link .png files with feh ,link .mp3 files with Audacious it's hard to do that?

It's quite easy. Look in this thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=70034

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...