It's been over a year since the last time I reviewed (1, 2) the Linux distribution that I use most of the time, Arch Linux. Since then, while the distro-specific innovations have slowed a bit down, maturity and stability has emerged.
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Member since:2005-06-28
These are the daemons I use (from memory, as I am on OSX atm): network acpid portmap fam dbus hal gdm. Also, I try to not use many gnome-panel applets cause these are the killer. That "50 MB" of RAM is the initial starting point after a clean boot. In fact, on my other user account where I use even fewer gnome-panel applets and a single gnome-panel, the system starts up at 48 MBs of RAM (and remember, that's with gnome-system-monitor loaded. G-s-m itself takes away quite a few MBs of RAM).
Please note that these numbers are from a 128 MB laptop (which I put on sale on Craigslist the other day: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/sys/176423192.html ;-). On a machine with more memory it's very possible to get different numbers for the same kind of configuration because the kernel would use there more cache/buffers.
Edited 2006-07-03 03:31
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2005-07-03
I must admit also that the 50mb's of memory is real impressive with a Gnome desktop. I have gnome 2.14 running alone (without any other major applications) taking up ~80mb's. Not a huge difference, but still 50mb's is tight. I wonder if it makes a difference from first starting up Gnome to later on since my machine has been running all day.
At any rate, Arch has been basically the only distro I can truly get into. I don't know why but for some reason I just seem to be able to grasp it well. There's something about this distro which really just keeps me happy. It has its issues. Installation for example. Don't bother trying to install the newest version of Arch from a slightly dated livecd (.7 for example). I've only had issues fighting with it. For fair reason, but it doesn't hold the trasition well. First time installers may be a little baffled too. Once you move beyond this point though, there's something that keeps me in tune with the system for long long periods of time. I think it's the only distro, or rather, OS that I've kept installed on my system for over a couple of months at a time... closer to a year at a time or so. It's really amazing to me.
Member since:
2005-06-29
I am an Arch user, too, and I love it. I am wondering, though ... how do you have a fully functioning GNOME desktop at only 50MB? Can you list the daemons you start in the daemons array in rc.conf? I am very curious. Thx Eugenia.