petter5 wrote:
It seems that Nx is a heavy system that ouwill benifit greatly from 2gig of ram, who is the maximum for the T42. Nx seems to be very heavy, but also polished and with a lot of added capibilities and possible easier to install and use
One of the irritating things about software is that it is like having a boat; everything is a compromise. Ease, gear, size, comfort, style, all bring complexity and expense. The key is to find a balance for what you want to do. On a stock T42 there are Linux distributions that would scream. There are also some that would give you a silent catatonic stare.
Unfortunately, greater visual appeal means greater demands on a system. Newer software tends to mean greater demands, and so on and so on...the dog chases its tail around and around.
4 years ago, Navigatrix use to be 1.3GB and would run on 128MB of memory. Just keeping the core packages current pushed the ISO to over 2GB and a requiring a minimum 196MB memory to run. (Personally, I would slash my wrists with anything less than 256MB, and drink heavily with less than 512MB, but that's another matter.)
It just depends on what you want and expect for eye candy, ease, functionality, and performance, and how you use your machine. Yes, clearly most everything runs better with 2GB, an amount that was borderline 'crazy' 10 years ago. Adding the maximum amount of memory is the first thing I do to a machine I intend to keep and use. But that's just the way I do it. (Netbook 2GB; laptop 4GB; desktop 16GB...which is definitely overkill by the way)
These are the compromises everyone makes and the reason there is work on light distributions such as Puppy, Damn Small, etc., for the new low horsepower embedded systems as well as the 'legacy' systems manufactured after mammoths went extinct.
With great diversity you can find a Linux system that will work on nearly
anything. It is an entirely different matter to find one system that will work on
everything, much less be suitable for the user, even a GUI that would please 20% of users (n.b., the Gnome2/3-Unity-Mate dramas).
For example, there are over 20 desktop environments/window manager to pick from. Navigatrix uses LXDE (
Lightweight
X11
Desktop
Environment) and Openbox.
In the scope of Linux distributions, there are lighter desktops, and there are much much heavier desktops. LXDE and Openbox are a balance, a compromise of efficiency and the prospect of continued development.
There has been talk about changing the desktop environment, but this brings another set of problems, and so it goes.
Frank Baudet's Xinutop is a good choice if you need something lighter and are braver. You can even give a go at creating your own if you are very brave.
I've tried.
By the time I added current software and the features I wanted, it started to look a lot like Navigatrix, but just didn't work as well.