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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nztoKDE@lemmy.kde.socialOpt out? Opt in? Opt Green!
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    26 days ago

    I’m not moving any goalposts. You’re the one arguing about the semantics around “Plasma”, and I keep saying that’s irrelevant.

    Refer back to my original comment which was, and I quote:

    So, are there any plans to reduce the bloat in KDE, maybe even make a lightweight version (like LXQt) that’s suitable for older PCs with limited resources?

    To clarify, here I was:

    • Referring to KDE + default apps that are part of a typical KDE installation
    • Stating that a typical KDE installation is bloated compared to a typical lightweight DE like LXQt
    • Saying with the intention that the “bloat” is RELATIVE, with respect to a older PC with limited resources

    The ENTIRE point of my argument was the KDE isn’t really ideal RELATIVELY, for older PCs with limited resources, and I’m using LXQt here are a reference.

    In a subsequent test, here’s a direct apples-to-apples(ish) component comparison:

    Component Process_KDE RAM_KDE Process_LXQt RAM_LXQt
    WM kwin_x11 99 openbox 18
    Terminal konsole 76 qterminal 75
    File Manager Dolphin 135 pcmanfm-qt 80
    File Archiver ark 122 Lxqt-archiver 73
    Text Editor kwrite 121 featherpad 73
    Image Viewer gwenview 129 lximage-qt 76
    Document Viewer okular 128 qpdfview-qt6 51
    Total 810 446

    plasmashell was sitting at 250MB btw in this instance btw.

    The numbers speak for themselves - no one in their right minds would consider KDE (or plasmashell, since you want to be pedantic) to be “light”, in RELATION to an older PC with limited resources - which btw, was the premise of my entire argument. Of course KDE or plasmashell might be considered “light” on a modern system, but not an old PC with 2GB RAM. Whether something is considered light or bloated is always relative, and in this instance, it’s obvious to anyone that KDE/plasmashell isn’t “light”.



  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nztoKDE@lemmy.kde.socialOpt out? Opt in? Opt Green!
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    26 days ago

    You’re arguing semantics and that’s not the point I’m trying to argue here. Forget the term “Plasma”. I don’t really care about what the DE is branded as or what’s in “Plasma” the software package. When I say “KDE”, I mean the desktop + all the basic default/recommended apps that you’d see on a typical KDE installation, such as Dolphin, Konsole, Kate, Kalculator, Spectacle etc that’s part of the KDE project. IDK whether the apps I’ve mentioned are considered part of “Plasma” or not, but again, that’s not the point, I’m saying this is what I meant when I said “KDE” - and what most people would expect when they picture a “KDE” environment.

    Anyways, I tested this myself on two identical VMs with 2GB RAM, one installed with Fedora 40 KDE, and another with Fedora 40 LXQt, both set to use X11 (because LXQt isn’t Wayland ready yet), both updated and running the latest kernel 6.8.10-300.fc40. I logged into the DEs, opened only two terminal windows and nothing else, ran, and ran htop. The screenshot speaks for itself:

    And when I tried disabling swap on both machines, the KDE machine was practically unusable, with only 53MB RAM remaining before it completely froze on me. Meanwhile, the LXQt one was still very much usable even without swap enabled.

    I’d like to see you try running without swap and see how it fares. And if you think it’s unfair disabling swap on a 2GB machine - try installing LXQt yourself, disable swap and see for yourself how much more usable it is compared to KDE.

    And this is why I say KDE is bloated and not suitable for old machines.

    Edit: Also, check out the memory consumption listed by a user in this post: https://lemmy.nz/comment/9070317

    Edit2: Here’s a screenshot of the top 30 processes on my test systems, side-by-side:

    Of the above, I calculated the usage of the top 10 processes specific to each respective DE, and you can see that KDE’s memory usage is almost double that of LXQt. Had I counted all the DE-specific processes, it’d no doubt be a lot more than double.


  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nztoKDE@lemmy.kde.socialOpt out? Opt in? Opt Green!
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    27 days ago

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but this #OptGreen project isn’t talking specifically about Plasma, is it? They don’t mention Plasma anywhere on the page they linked.

    In any case, that’s irrelevant, also, I don’t doubt that KDE can’t run at all under the specs you mentioned - that’s not the issue. The question is, how much free/usable RAM do you actually have on that machine - let’s say with no apps open first, and with then check again with Konsole + Dolphin + KWrite/Kate open? And for fun, fire up Konqueror as well and check again.


  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nztoKDE@lemmy.kde.socialOpt out? Opt in? Opt Green!
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    26 days ago

    Edit: Screenshots proving that what you’re saying is not correct:

    I’m not talking specifically about Plasma, I’m talking about the “DE” part of KDE in general; and particularly in this context of repurposing and extending the life of old PCs.

    I find it a bit ironic for KDE to be pushing this message, when it’s a heavy DE (relatively speaking) - it’s NOT what anyone would have in mind when when selecting a DE for an old PC.

    For instance, take LXQt - run the default/recommended file browser, terminal and text editor, and compare it with KDE + equivalents - you’d see a significant difference in resource consumption. On a system with low RAM, that extra bit of free memory makes a big difference, as it could mean avoiding the penalty hit of the swap file, which you’d invariably run into as soon as you fire up a modern Web browser. So it’s vital that the DE use as little resources as possible on such a machine.



  • Sounds like an issue with your WiFi adapter/driver. You can verify this by creating a mobile hotspot on your phone and connecting your PC to it and see if you get the same issue, if you do then it proves it’s got nothing to do with your router.

    Another thing you can check is your journalctl logs - run journalctl -f before launching the game, then run the game and quit it when you run into the DNS issue, and check the logs at the time the issue occurred. If there’s indeed a hardware/driver issue, the errors should show up in the logs.

    If it’s a driver issue, there may not be much you can do about it besides reporting the bug and implementing some sort of workaround (eg using a VPN). Of course, depending on the error, there may be a fix you can apply, like turning of aspm for your chip. A better option would be to replace the WiFi chip/adapter you’re using and get something that’s better supported under Linux, like something with an Intel or Atheros chip. But check journalctl first and see how it goes from there.





  • You cannot go back after trying it

    I did! Used to have a Samsung 49" ultrawide. After using it for a couple of years, I sold it and got a 16:10 32" QHD, which I found worked better for me (+ one or two laptop screens for chat / random stuff when I’m doing serious work).

    The biggest issue I had with the ultrawide is that most of the games that I played weren’t optimised for it, especially in some games where things like the mini-map might be at the far end of the screen, or worse, if it was an older game then you’d have to put up with black bars, or play the game in windowed mode.




  • IMO you shouldn’t look at it as “should I become an x user”, because that sort of implies you’re getting married to that distro. Instead, you should be asking, “should I use x to solve y?” For instance, I use RHEL, Debian (Raspbian), Fedora (Asahi), Fedora Atomic (Bazzite) and Arch. I also use Windows, macOS and FreeDOS. All solve different needs and problems. There’s no rule saying you should only stick to one distro/OS use whatever suits your needs, hardware and environment the best. :)