Re: Linux desktop performance under extreme memory and CPU pressure

I haven't had problems when using Linux desktops in the way you have
described. Terminals and text editors are pretty low on resource reqs. I
have run the same kind of workloads on Win 7 and Win 10, with dozens of
command prompts. I have also had dozens of Python scripts running in
parallel in Windows command prompts, while also running hundreds of tabs in
Chrome or Firefox. I try to turn off the eye candy on all my desktop OSes.
I find the classic Windows 95/98/2000 style desktop UI to be the most
resource efficient, and to have best contrast for notification visibility.
I run 64 bit if the hardware supports it.


On Sat, Jul 25, 2020, 21:32 Rick Engebretson <[email protected]> wrote:

> Thank for your courtesy and new thread.
>
> Again, I'm quite a Linux computer bumpkin, so I'll just share my
> experience for your feedback input.
>
> I use openSuSE linux, both 32 and 64 bit. My wife's laptop is 64 bit
> Windows 7, I have a Windows 7 32bit somewhere, too. The Windows 7 64 bit
> is all but useless, even after an expensive repair. My 64 bit openSuSE
> boxes mostly sit turned off.
>
> My web client machine (this machine) is an old core2 duo 32 bit 4gB ram
> running openSuSE 13.2. My development boxes usually just run
> openSuse12.2 32bit with similar hardware.
>
> The linux desktop was quite a pleasant surprise for me. I usually run 10
> virtual desktops, sometimes use a virtual terminal. This all runs with
> KDE or XFCE. I like XFCE because I can have dozens of open NEdit text
> editors organized and stable. Currently, I'm enjoying learning ever more
> about Tcl/Tk after over 20 years.
>
> The KDE desktop installs with crazy amounts of "eye candy" and even has
> an "Activities Manager" adding yet another dimension of UI, most likely
> intended to fool your boss by quickly switching from playing to working.
> I usually unset the eye candy and set the OpenGL off and use XWindow
> rendering.
>
> The only time I run a bunch of browser windows is on eBay or programming
> language HTML manual pages.
>
> But all this said, I think you are likely right about Windows GUI
> efficiency. Professional video editors I know use Windows. Gamers love
> Windows.
>
>
> Haudy Kazemi wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am splitting this topic off from the other thread, hoping that someone
> > has a solution or recommendations.
> >
> > My experience with Android and Windows is they both do a very good job
> > in dealing with processes that become very memory or CPU hungry. The
> > systems tend to stay responsive (may lag slightly, but usable), and
> > recoverable (task managers can still be brought up), even under extreme
> > memory and CPU pressure.
> >
> > I have yet to find a desktop Linux distro that can do nearly as well.
> > Chrome and Firefox both easily get into 100% CPU usage and high memory
> > usage situations on desktop Linux, resulting in nonresponsive systems,
> > that I don't experience on Android or Windows. These situations are easy
> > enough to hit that even novice users can experience them with only a
> > handful of open tabs, depending on the sites open. (On the exact same
> > hardware, Windows can run the same browser with the same or even more
> > tabs and survive). With these problems, I find it hard to recommend
> > Linux as a general purpose desktop OS to others or even use it as my own
> > desktop as my daily driver. Linux seems to do okay when the upper bounds
> > of the loads are well-defined and easily fit within the available
> resources.
> >
> > Does anyone know of a distro that does as good as a job at maintaining
> > resource control and desktop responsiveness under heavy load as Android
> > or Windows? I would love to hear about it.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > -hk
> >
> > P.S. a relevant article, "Yes, Linux Does Bad In Low RAM / Memory
> > Pressure Situations On The Desktop"
> >
> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Does-Bad-Low-RAM
> >
> > P.P.S. It appears that Android uses pressure stall information (PSI) to
> > mitigate these problems per
> > post
> https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/phoronix/general-discussion/1118164-yes-linux-does-bad-in-low-ram-memory-pressure-situations-on-the-desktop?p=1118174#post1118174
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
> > [email protected]
> > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list
> >
> _______________________________________________
> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
> [email protected]
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