>> I remember running KDE3 on "old" hardware, e.g. 256MB RAM
>> and a 1ghz CPU. I've heard people say it works fine on 128MB
>> RAM and 700mhz if you run a minimal install. I doubt many
>> people would be using such hardware, but it's definitely
>> possible and needs consideration.
>
> I have used KDE3 on my PI (with a 400 MHZ K6-III+) and PII machines. KDE3
> is usable but requires serious patience. Likewise Trinity. On the other
> hand, NT4 is installed on both machines and run very fast. The PI has 256
> MB RAM and the PII 448 MB.
>
> There is a point of diminishing returns with tweaking the code base for
> older hardware. On the other hand, if people run LXDE or Xfce on such
> hardware then there will be unavoidable comparisons. Even if we draw a
> line with older hardware, I believe we should focus attention on improving
> performance.
>
> Tim mentioned in a previous thread something called tdeinit_phase1 that
> eventually will improve the Trinity start time. That's good news. :)
>
>> My best suggestion (this will probably take several
>> releases) is to see how much the code can be trimmed without
>> removing functionality, possibly separate packages further
>> for a sort of "old computer" install -- for example (though
>> I can't say for sure, I personally never checked, don't take
>> my word for it unless one of the devs can confirm), some of
>> the libs from tdelibs probably wouldn't be needed for an
>> absolute barebones system. It may also be good to try to
>> separate functionality where possible.
>
> There probably are places we can trim code. For example, do we want to
> continue supporting Cervisia, which is a KDE specific wrapper to CVS? I
> don't know.
>
> Your comments run close to what I proposed a while ago: Trinity Light. The
> focus there is primarily knowledge about build issues. People using older
> hardware probably would not install tdesdk let alone build the package.
> Trinity Light likely would not include that package or at most, only as an
> optional package.
>
> Older hardware more than likely are standalone home or small-office
> machines. If we had a wiki page addressing such build issues we could
> offer a Trinity Light without sacrificing developer time toward tweaking
> code. All we need is information and then let packagers handle the
> details. Trinity Light is not something we support officially. That is, we
> don't provide the packages, we provide the information needed to build
> Trinity Light. We probably post to our web site that the basic Trinity
> installation runs best with hardware of PIII or faster and 512 MB RAM. For
> people wanting a lighter version we refer them to the build instructions
> at the wiki.
>
> The wiki page would address which build options could be removed and why.
> For example, building tdepim without sasl support builds a leaner package
> and theoretically faster KMail, but probably is a bad idea because that
> mechanism is how secure email logins are handled.
>
> My PI and PII qualify as old hardware and would serve as great test
> environments for running Trinity Light. :)
>
> Darrell

Just to jump in here, there is one use case for a lightweight DE that
doesn't involve obsolete hardware: multiuser mainframe-type systems.  When
you have 50 users on one central server, each with a session that is being
accessed via a remote desktop protocol such as VNC or even the X
protocols, slight reductions in the overhead of each session make a big
difference overall.

Just something to think about in these odd times, when the personal
computer is being "replaced" with a variant of the old central mainframe
model....

Tim