After reviewing the different Linux Desktop Environments (Xfce, Mate, and LXQt) and choosing Xfce, I have completed installation and configuration on my trusty Thinkpad X200 with Sparky Linux 6.2 with Xfce desktop environment (DE). I am using the default adwaita-dark theme and adwaita icons.
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| My Desktop |
I prefer to use the dark theme as it is better on the eyes, especially during night use. I will also change the color temperature to 1900K for better night use.
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| Desktop with open windows |
I have removed most of the Internet and Multimedia apps and installed my preferred apps listed below:
Audacious - MP3 player
VLC - No change. My favorite video player.
Featherpad - Text editor with spell check
VirtualBox - Virtualization tool for testing different Linux distros.
LibreOffice - MS office alternative that I stick to in Linux
sct - Change the color temperature of the display.
Web browser - Brave, Falkon and Epiphany Browser (Gnome web)
File manager - Thunar (default)
Image editor - showfoto
The RAM usage hits about 625MB after my setup, including installing snap and flatpak. Still, it is not a lot. It hits about 1.1GB with Brave browser, audacious, CPU Power GUI, and htop running. As I said, the RAM usage very much depends on what applications you install and use. Having a lightweight desktop only reduces the RAM usage for other applications that you use. Just get more RAM since it is not that expensive compared to other hardware purchases.
My usage of laptops is very simple and don't have demanding needs for my laptop. Below are the activities that I use my laptop for:
- Surfing the Internet
- Watch Youtube or stream videos
- Light programming such as Python
- File transfer
- Linux distro testing using VirtulaBox
- Some light graphics editing and blogging.
- Whatsapp messaging
The overall Sparky Linux 6.2 with Xfce on my Thinkpad X200 is responsive and has not many lags so far. Even if there is, that's likely due to a slower hard disk or too much disk activities. Anyone who prefers a nice desktop and responsive computer or laptop can try to use Xfce DE and Sparky Linux.
Note: Sparky Linux has an unstable version of Mate DE. I have tried it and it is really unstable and logs out automatically by itself. I suspect is due to different windows managers running at the same time but I don't want to waste time working on it.
Another issue is using the command "sudo apt autoremove", it seems to remove actual system apps that breaks the system. I think I got this problem more than twice. So I am looking for a new distro to replace Sparky Linux.
ISSUES FOUND:
After installing Whatsie app from snap, I noticed that it does not show in the menu. Even though I can run the app manually using the command: snap run whatsie, it is not expected behavior on Linux. I will monitor this situation before I comment further.
SOLUTION:
Just tried a solution and it works. The workaround is:
sudo cp /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/app_name.desktop ~/.local/share/application
So far it works.
Another option is:
Update the below code into ~/.profile:
# Expand $PATH to include the directory where snappy applications go.
snap_bin_path="/snap/bin"
if [ -n "${PATH##*${snap_bin_path}}" -a -n "${PATH##*${snap_bin_path}:*}" ]; then
export PATH=$PATH:${snap_bin_path}
fi
# Ensure base distro defaults xdg path are set if nothing filed up some
# defaults yet.
if [ -z "$XDG_DATA_DIRS" ]; then
export XDG_DATA_DIRS="/usr/local/share:/usr/share"
fi
# Desktop files (used by desktop environments within both X11 and Wayland) are
# looked for in XDG_DATA_DIRS; make sure it includes the relevant directory for
# snappy applications' desktop files.
snap_xdg_path="/var/lib/snapd/desktop"
if [ -n "${XDG_DATA_DIRS##*${snap_xdg_path}}" -a -n "${XDG_DATA_DIRS##*${snap_xdg_path}:*}" ]; then
export XDG_DATA_DIRS="${XDG_DATA_DIRS}:${snap_xdg_path}"
fi
Can try if it works. I did both.
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