Adding a few KDE apps

[ffejveg]

Since the KDE .iso will no longer work on my machine I've installed LXDE and am happy except for a few things that I miss. I know installing lots of KDE apps will significantly slow things down because of the additional extensive libraries required, but what about just a few? I'm considering just 4 at the moment: KWrite, K3b, Digikam, and Okular. I assume KWrite and Okular would be low footprint so to speak, but K3b and Digikam might require significant resources (I have 512 MB of memory). If I install these and my system slows down, does un-installing also remove all the libraries or do they remain on the system?

I know there are equivalents in LXDE, and I will continue to explore and experiment. Brasero may just work fine for me instead of K3b (I've used it just once so far), and Evince may be OK as a document viewer. I have yet to explore GPicViewer for photo management. It seems that Leafpad does not have the color-coded html rendering that I like in KWrite, so I may indeed install the latter. Of course, part of engaging a new DE is getting used to new applications that must be approached at first as neither better or worse, just different, so I'll continue to explore.

In the meantime, I'd like to hear anyone's opinion on the advisability of installing some KDE software on an LXDE system - will it gunk it up?

[AndrzejL]

Hi Dude.

I have a pentium 2 machine with 440 MB of ram 2 mb graphic card and ISA (!) sound card.

I am running LXDE on this machine and I was able to get it to play avi files...

I have several KDE4 apps installed - it did slowed things down a bit but the machine is still usable.

Install them - try them. Decide Yourself.

In my case I am using Foxit Reader instead of Okular which I find heavy and slow to render pages. I learned to use Leafpad instead of kwrite. It's very good after a bit of config tweaking. If I want just a basic text editing tool - I use mcedit (in the terminal) for this job. Digikam and K3B is what I use here too.

Hope this helps.

Regards.

Andy

[Neal ManBear]

Do a full update first. After that is complete, install the apps one at a time. That way you will have separate entries in Synaptic history for each app and its dependencies.   

[AndrzejL]

Do a full update first. After that is complete, install the apps one at a time. That way you will have separate entries in Synaptic history for each app and its dependencies.   

Indeed. Clever move there Neal .

Andy

[ffejveg]

OK, will do. Thanks guys.

[Neal ManBear]

Do a full update first. After that is complete, install the apps one at a time. That way you will have separate entries in Synaptic history for each app and its dependencies.   

Indeed. Clever move there Neal .

Andy

Thanks. Just some experience at work on my brain cell, Andy. You know - installing dependencies to build and test RPMs and such or to test how things will work together.

[ffejveg]

I added Kwrite the other day, and here's what it also installed:

kdebase4-kwrite   98.5 KB
kdebase4-core   446 KB
kdebase4-runtime   16.1MB
kdelibs4   46.8 MB

By comparison, here's Leafpad plus some of the larger LXDE default programs:

Leafpad   336 KB
GIMP   53.6 MB
Gnome icon theme   85.6 MB
gutenprint-foomatic   104 MB

I haven't noticed any difference in system performance except for a few more seconds in boot time, so all is good!

[krckor]

Just to chime in a little since I've been mixing applications on all of my installs.

It kinda depends on the type of applications and mostly when you are going to start them (startup or manual) and stuff...

For example, i'm using wmii so no classic desktop session and I like qtcurve so it's drawing all of the widgets (qt and gtk) and because of that, system on start is little heavier. Stuff like kdeinit: kded4, kglobalaccel, kio stuff, klauncher are always running and can't be killed (respawn immediately) but all of the KDE apps that  tend to run from time to time start a little bit faster. Stuff like okular or gwenview witch I use all the time are very snappy... in my experience at least.

On the other hand, if i set regular gtk theme and have no kde app on startup, system will be lighter for 50-60 megs of ram but first KDE applications that you run will start slower for the first time an will spawn all kde-related services (kdeinit and rest) so you end up in the same place memory vise.

It kinda boils down to how often do you use KDE applications and do you really need them or you can use something else like a replacement





_____
krckor

[hasmak]

I have yet to explore GPicViewer for photo management.

Hi
You can also try Geeqie, I find it much better than GPicViewer, it has lots of options and highly configurable
Cheers

[Neal ManBear]

Try Viewnior for your images.

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

May I suggest that, if you are using KDE/QT apps, you also install qgtkstyle, it's not perfect, but the Qt-based stuff will look a lot better.

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

Just another thing: I have added KMyMoney and DigiKam to LXDE. I wanted to see the effect of running them, to see whether the KDE libraries they pull in has an effect on memory.

Before I ran them, CPU was 4% and memory was 31% (of 2GiB)

After running them and closing them, CPU was 4% and memory was 32%. Though while typing this message in Chromium, CPU went to 5%-6% and memory as high as 34%.

Which indicates to me that having one or two run-time KDE libraries doesn't push CPU or memory usage up considerably at all.

[longtom]

Hi davecs,

I would like to add that on a 2.0 Celeron with 1.3GB ram it does make a more profound difference.  So depending on your machine the mileage may vary, especially if you have LXDE installed to get more use out of an older PC.

[djohnston]

I know installing lots of KDE apps will significantly slow things down because of the additional extensive libraries required, but what about just a few? I'm considering just 4 at the moment: KWrite, K3b, Digikam, and Okular. I assume KWrite and Okular would be low footprint so to speak, but K3b and Digikam might require significant resources (I have 512 MB of memory). If I install these and my system slows down, does un-installing also remove all the libraries or do they remain on the system?

In the meantime, I'd like to hear anyone's opinion on the advisability of installing some KDE software on an LXDE system - will it gunk it up?

It's a common misconception that just adding more packages to an installation "slows it down". Sure, it may take a few extra seconds to boot due to reading the larger directories. But, as krckor and davecs have pointed out, it depends on what you install. In other words, are the extra packages you install going to start extra system services or daemons? These would be tasks that run continuously in the background while your desktop is running.

As Neal pointed out, a systematic approach to installing the extra applications while noting their dependencies will give you a reference as to what to remove, should you later decide to. Not all of the libraries will always uninstall with the application.

One of my computers is not quite as sparse as AndrzejL's, but it's a Pentium III with 512 MB of RAM. It is running Openbox, which uses only slightly less resources than LXDE. Openbox is the window manager for LXDE. Anyway, as to your K3B question, I've tried all the other CD/DVD burners. For me, they just don't cut it when compared to the features and usability of K3B. So, I have K3B, as well as other KDE apps installed. Although K3B pulls in a few QT libraries and other packages, there is no performance hit on the system for K3B while it's not in use. That goes for a lot of other KDE programs, as well.

Let your own tests and judgement be your guide. And Neal's excellent advice on methodically installing packages.