i3 may be a good candidate desktop since it's supposed to be light on resource useage.
Jude <jdashiel at panix dot com> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940) . On Sat, 7 Jan 2023, Tim Cross wrote: > > Ypo <ypun...@gmail.com> writes: > > > Hi > > > > Orgmode is sometimes desperately slow on my PC: > > > > Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz, 3100 Mhz > > > > (RAM) 4,00 GB > > > > I am running Windows 10, everything I use works OK, but Orgmode. > > > > Do you think that if I install a Linux OS, Orgmode would run fast? Any OS > > suggestion? > > > > Sadly, the answer is likely "that depends". There are just too many > unknown variables to provide a definitive answer. However, what I can > tell you is > > - I have frequently taken hardware which users have found old and slow > when running Windows and given it a new life running Linux. Linux can > certainly perform better with less resources given some caveats. > > - Unlike Windows, Linux comes with a wide variety of destkop > environments and window managers. Some are resource hungry and others > are extremely light-weight. Selecting the right window manager will be > crucial. For older and slower machines with only a small amount of > memory, I would consider window managers like XFCE or maybe MATE. > > - From the specs you provide, my guess is that memory is your main > bottle neck. This would further suggest that if you were to switch to > Linux, avoid memory hungry desktop environments like Gnome or > KDE. AGain, XFCE is small and fast and very reliable. It lacks the > visual candy of other environments, but given your specs, something > needs to be given up and visual candy seems a good starting > point. However, this change will likely require some adjustment on > your part. While there is little you cannot do on a Linux system, the > level of integration and automation 'out of the box' is likely to be > less. You will certainly be able to create an environment which is > just as efficient and convenient as Windows, but it will likely take > additional effort and willingness to adapt on your part. > > - Emacs and org mode can also be memory hungry. It is possible (likely > in fact) that you could get much better performance, even under > windows, by modifying how you use org mode. Things I would recommend > include > > - Keep your org files as small as possible. Use multiple files > rather than one big file. > - Don't load any Emacs packages you don't actually use. Don't > load/install any org packages you don't actually use/need. > > > A common error I see people make now that we have convenient emacs/elisp > packages is to install lots of packages. When I've been helping people > with Emacs performance, the first thing we do is go through all the > things they have installed/configured. Frequently, there are lots of > things installed which they never use. > > What I sometimes recommend is that they comment out as much of their > Emacs and org configuration as possible and then use the system for a > few days. During this time, only enable something once you find you need > it. It is often surprising to them how much stuff they had configured or > installed which they really never used. The other benefit is that > smaller and simpler setups are less likely to have undesired side > effects or interactions with other packages, leading to fewer problems > and increased stability. > > At the end of the day, a system with only 4Gb of memory is on the tight > side for a modern setup. I would argue the minimum size these days is > more like 8Gb and a 'good' setup is at least 12Gb. I personally have a > minimum of 16Gb and prefer 32Gb, but I also use a lot of VMs and other > container techniques to manage multiple stable and unrelated development > environments. On the other hand, my wife and children use small systems > running Linux XFCE with only 4Gb and find them quite adequate for what > they do (mainly email, surfing the web, basic office documents with > libre office etc). These systems are things like asus notebooks, small > form factor, slower CPU and 4Gb memory. They find them quite adequate > and appreciate the small form factor, but they also don't spend 8 hours > a day on them! > >
