RAM graph

[schmidtbag]

i'm aware that almost nobody has to worry about ram usage on lxde, even if you have as little as 384mb, but i think the panel's cpu graph should also be expandable to show ram and swap usage (or at least ram) as well. an option for editing the size of the graph would be nice too, but the size is ok for now.

[maces]

Hi,

a good idea, could you add this too the feature request tracker?

maces

[Marty Jack]

Without yet having an opinion on whether this is a good improvement, I will point out that projects get bloated one feature at a time. This is part of what has happened to Xfce lately. I dare say many people run conky or gkrellm if they want a more elaborate snapshot of system usage.

[schmidtbag]

Without yet having an opinion on whether this is a good improvement, I will point out that projects get bloated one feature at a time. This is part of what has happened to Xfce lately. I dare say many people run conky or gkrellm if they want a more elaborate snapshot of system usage.

That is an excellent point to make and i am well aware of this. i know some feature requests such as better themes are very risky, and i do like how lxde is very lightweight.

i think what needs to be kept in mind is you can add all the features out there, you could make everything 3d with very high resolution textures and lots of special effects but they should be optional and separate from the DE. the problem with gnome and kde is they're packed with integrated features, some of which you can disable but they still consume memory and cpu usage whether you use them or not. although integration is part of what makes things stable and more effective, i feel lxde should have features such as a SEPARATE memory graph (not built into the cpu graph) and all tools with it are completely independent of themselves but directly targets lxde. that way, people don't HAVE to use up so much hdd space and ram for something that they must install. also as i see it, if you're going to do something like a resource monitor, you might as well go all-out on it.

[Marty Jack]

The "all-out" GTK based resource monitors are conky and gkrellm. If this were my project, it wouldn't have even the CPU monitor.

There is little point in having a lot of things that "directly target" LXDE that duplicate other well known stable applications. Unlike the other DEs we don't have a core library that people are supposed to write things around. The core of LXDE is not much more than lxsession + lxpanel + an icon theme so that you have one. Some would probably include pcmanfm and lxappearance in the core, but I run quite happily without those.

It is open source, so people should feel free to write whatever they think is needed and submit it.

[schmidtbag]

true, i do see what you mean. personally though, all i feel lxde needs on a fresh new install are:
more system practical (and customizable) panel addons
a good network tool
oss (although i prefer alsa)
a graphical menu editor that isn't alacarte
a graphical frontend for su (that isn't gksu. ktsuss is nice but it doesn't work well if you don't execute programs as a shell)
and not iceweasel as the default browser

i don't think lxde should have any more additions other than the few i mentioned - i don't think it should even come with that music player (especially if it doesn't come with sound drivers). if people really don't want something like additional panel features , sound, or a menu editor, they could just uninstall them. i've uninstalled some things lxde came with (such as iceweasel and gdm). i completely understand the purpose of lxde - i use it because i like what its intended for. but its really hard to accept a minimalist DE when it comes with so little that its more of an inconvenience than a feature. it took me hours to get my setup the way i wanted. once the desktop is loaded, lxde consumes around 60mb of ram. also as a side-note, if this de strives to be ram and cpu friendly, wouldn't it make sense to have an optional panel graph that shows how much ram is used? for people with limited system resources, this could help them look out. programs like conky are inconvenient when they're always below windows

[Marty Jack]

You raise some good points.

Unlike KDE and GNOME, LXDE isn't a monolithic blob of all kinds of things that you start running when you log in. The provision of iceweasel, and whether or not oss is available, and the other applications that you mentioned, is a design choice that the distro made. The network tool can be an added application; wicd and NetworkManager are two that are mentioned favorably and we have lxnm that is alpha state right now.

Once you get past the display manager (the gadget that lets you log in), you only need X, the session manager, the panel, and a window manager of your choice running in order to have a viable LXDE system. If you want icons on your desktop and a few other niceties, you also need pcmanfm. Everything else is a choice that you or the distro makes.

I do agree that a menu editor would be very helpful. There is no suitable one that is separable from the big DEs at the moment. I should seriously consider starting work on that. We can only go so long telling people to manually delve into /usr/share/applications. Part of the philosophy of LXDE I would say, however, is that it is for people with some experience who are able to customize it themselves and are willing to spend a short while doing that in order to get it the way they want. Those who need a little more handholding are probably best off with one of the mainstream DEs.

[schmidtbag]

ya i see what you mean there, and i feel having a resource efficient os comes with a price. but with the few suggested programs i had, it would at least give people a less tedious start. things like ktsuss and wicd in my opinion are more mandatory than just something nice to have. one of the disadvantages to linux is how heavily reliant it is on the internet. for such a barebone DE like lxde, how are people supposed to easily get their hands on a network manager if wireless or a non-dhcp network is all they have? i'm aware lxde is not a distro, but i feel every modern de should come with some sort of graphical network manager that supports wireless.
think of it in this way - its like being a chef and you go to some kitchen you've never been to. you have everything you could possibly need to make a meal but you have no idea where anything is, other than its in the kitchen. but, if you had someone with you who could tell you where everything was, sure you might not want to bother the person but if you want to get things done in a timely manner, you need something to start you out.

ktsuss imo is perfect for lxde - its intended to be independent and lightweight. like i said before, you have to make some apps run under a shell if you want it to work properly, but its still a great gksu alternative. i can see why this may have to be distro specific, because some distros, such as debian, will allow root as the default user, and therefore it would be useless.

maybe instead of actually installing all of my suggestions, there could be a bookmarked page in the default installed web browser that has some recommended apps to get started and how to install them for whichever distro you use. another one of linux's greatest disadvantages is theres very little help to get you started - you're sort of expected to already know what you're doing. its what kept me away from it for so many years (i'm glad i use it now though, its my favorite os by far)

[georgemikal]

yes i think Marty Jack is right.....
thanks buddy

[shafir]

I do not expect that there will ever be a way to run Gnome applets with LXPanel. The reasons for this have been discussed; they have to do with supporting the private, undocumented, subject to change at any moment communication mechanism between the Gnome panel and its applets. If Xfce wishes to take on this burden, fine, good luck to them.

It would be helpful if you would list the additional applets that you would like to have and then the feature can be provided some other way. We already know about Weather, thank you.

I have running in the development code a task applet that only displays a button that brings up a menu of the tasks, rather than displaying them in a bar. Unlike Gnome (and I am not sure how Xfce does this) it can be switched back and forth; it is not a separate applet.