This is part 4 of our desktop testing series. We’ll deal with some of the less common desktop environments in this entry which by chance are are all GTK+ based.
These are:
For test criteria and the basic Arch system, please refer to the first part of this test.
GNOME 2
GNOME was the most used Linux desktop before the new version 3. GNOME 2 is quite old now but it is still a standard desktop in several more conservative distributions. And while it is not nearly as common anymore as it once was, it may still be the most used DE of this part of our test!
The GNOME 2 desktop
Installation
Using mirror from 04/30/2011 (Kernel 2.6.38)
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit dbus xf86-video-vesa gnome
Statistics
Memory usage right after starting up GNOME 2 (with a second login on tty2) and used disk space after removing pacman cache. Here are the values I got with cat /proc/meminfo and df respectively df -h:
| Arch Linux + | GNOME 2 (2.32) |
| MemTotal: | 1028476 kb |
| MemFree: | 888080 kb |
| Buffers: | 15672 kb |
| Cached: | 63488 kb |
| Rootfs: | 1299288 / 1.3G |
| RAM used at startup: | 140396 / ~137 MB |
| Disk space (less basic system): | 645000 / 630MB |
ROX DE
ROX is best known for ROX-filer, a widely used file manager. A little less common is the ROX desktop. Like one would expect, ROX-filer is the heart of it, but there are several other parts which form the ROX DE together. In its default shape it is very simplistic – and certainly not nice-looking. But don’t be fooled: With a little customization it can look a lot better than it does on this screenshot!
The ROX desktop
Installation
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit dbus dbus-glib virtualbox-archlinux-additions gconf libxxf86vm openbox rox
pacman -U rox-session-0.41.0-5-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U appearance-0.9.1.ml-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-clib-2.1.10-2-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U appfactory-2.1.5.ml-2-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U archive-2.2.git.ml-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U mini-clock-2.0.0.ml-2-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U resolution-0.3.ml-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-edit-2.2-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-font-0.9.2.ml-2-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-keyboard-0.11.1.ml-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-mouse-0.10.1.ml-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-trash-0.3.0.ml-2-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U traylib-0.3.2.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-trasktray-0.7-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U python-pyalsaaudio-0.7-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U rox-volume-0.4.14122008-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U systemtray-n-0.3.2.1.ml-2-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U tasklisk-0.5.ml-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
Statistics
Memory usage right after starting up ROX (with a second login on tty2) and used disk space after removing pacman cache. Here are the values I got with cat /proc/meminfo and df respectively df -h:
| Arch Linux + | ROX (0.41.0) |
| MemTotal: | 1030652 kb |
| MemFree: | 955128 kb |
| Buffers: | 10084 kb |
| Cached: | 36784 kb |
| Rootfs: | 1087652 / 1.1G |
| RAM used at startup: | 75524 / ~74 MB |
| Disk space (less basic system): | 433364 / 423MB |
Enlightenment E17
Enlightenment started as a hacked window manager that was amazingly customizable. E16 is the current stable version. With E17 however, so many things have been added that it is no longer considered just a WM but in fact a real DE. E17 is officially in beta stages but it is already pretty stable and used for everyday work by many users.
The E17 desktop
Installation
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit dbus virtualbox-archlinux-additions e-svn
Statistics
Memory usage right after starting up E17 (with a second login on tty2) and used disk space after removing pacman cache. Here are the values I got with cat /proc/meminfo and df respectively df -h:
| Arch Linux + | E17 (snv-72693) |
| MemTotal: | 1030652 kb |
| MemFree: | 934808 kb |
| Buffers: | 8772 kb |
| Cached: | 50312 kb |
| Rootfs: | 896992 / 876M |
| RAM used at startup: | 95844 / ~94 MB |
| Disk space (less basic system): | 242704 / 237MB |
Sugar
Sugar is not really a general-purpose desktop. It’s a DE made for children. It would probably not be known by many people if it wasn’t the standard DE on the sub-notebooks of the well-known “One Laptop Per Child” project. It’s also available as an optional package in some of the bigger distributions.
The Sugar desktop
Installation
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit dbus virtualbox-archlinux-additions python-pygame
pacman -U sugar-base-0.94.0-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
pacman -U python2-xapian-1.2.10-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-datastore-0.94.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U icon-slicer-0.3-5-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-artwork-0.94.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-presence-service-0.90.2-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U hippo-canvas-0.3.1-2-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-toolkit-0.94.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U sugar-0.94.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
Statistics
Memory usage right after starting up Sugar (with a second login on tty2) and used disk space after removing pacman cache. Here are the values I got with cat /proc/meminfo and df respectively df -h:
| Arch Linux + | Sugar (0.94.1) |
| MemTotal: | 1030652 kb |
| MemFree: | 911100 kb |
| Buffers: | 12092 kb |
| Cached: | 57340 kb |
| Rootfs: | 1272052 / 1.3G |
| RAM used at startup: | 119552 / ~117 MB |
| Disk space (less basic system): | 617764 / 603MB |
Conclusion
GNOME 2 is the biggest DE this time and it’s doing a little better than MATE in terms of RAM needed. Sugar needs some less RAM but it’s not a DE many people will want to use, anyway. E17 is beautiful and still rather memory-saving. And the ROX desktop is by far the most frugal one so far when it comes to memory usage!
What’s next?
The next entry will cover some rather exotic Linux desktop environments.
eerielinux 
Reblogged this on Gigable – Tech Blog.