GNOME as Desktop Environment, Leaking

  So with the WFH days due to Covid-19, I spend more time on my desktop, since it is more comfortable sitting at the desk, than over the laptop.  I was working using GNOME, which was ok for a while, but through out the day I noticed that my memory usage was at 100%, and my system starts to swap like crazy.

  I switched over to KDE Plasman, and it looks like having the same number of browser tabs/windows open I use only up to 5.1GB of RAM vs. 8GB and it doesn't seem to grow over time. I tested it for 3 days now, and KDE Plasma is way more stable and memory friendly than GNOME.  So I actually decided to un-install GNOME all together, I still have XFCE if Plasma decides to mess with me.  I did have one instance when it was not willing to start-up for what ever reason.  Maybe one day GNOME will become stable and memory friendly. I like it's simplicity and being un-cluttered. Plasma is ok, though at times it can be over configurable :)  

  Anyhow, I also ordered an SSD for my desktop, so I'll probably be replacing my Ubuntu system to Manjaro.  I prefer the rolling release, and over the year or so I've been using it have not experienced any issues.

  I will be an interesting switch, since I have a LVM HDD setup, the new SSD will have a fresh Manjaro install, and I'll try to mount the LVM, once up and running. Enough of this rant.... peace

Upgrade to the little laptop

  I was thinking of purchasing a new laptop since I felt like my little trusty Acer is aging. Instead, I decided to upgrade it. It is after all out of warranty, so I got it an 8GB RAM Upgrade, and a 240GB SSD, well I have to say, it's a new experience. I put a fresh install of Manjaro Linux which I highly recommend.  I used GNOME as my Desktop Environment but recently switched to KDE.  I originally had Xfce, but it has a limitation that I couldn't find a workaround for, so I went with GNOME and I am now experimenting with KDE. I have to say, Plasma KDE is nice, and its memory footprint won't be a problem with 8GB of RAM.  The real bottleneck I some times hit is the CPU

About info below:
Operating System: Manjaro Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 5.17.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.64.0
Qt Version: 5.13.2
Kernel Version: 5.4.2-1-MANJARO
OS Type: 64-bit
Processors: 2 × Intel® Celeron® CPU N3050 @ 1.60GHz
Memory: 7,6 GiB of RAM







  I can't say I hit it often, but I noticed a few times :) I know it's not that hard, but for my home usage, I think I can live with it. My neighbor has an HP Laptop, with an Intel i3, 8GB, and SSD laptop. One day he asked me if he should upgrade, I just can't see why would a home user who uses the laptop for browsing Facebook, maybe watching Youtube would need a stronger machine?  I mean really, for those tasks you don't need a laptop a tablet would do the job just fine. I do know that he's using Windows 10, which explains why the machine feels slow and flimsy. I still don't understand or know why Windows machines manage to slow down over time. Every few years you should do a fresh install to keep it lean and fast.
  For example, I have my Desktop, which now uses Ubuntu 19.10 which was upgraded over the years from 15.04, that's 4 years of upgrades keep in mind that its full upgrades. I won't say that I don't see some problems, most likely from some manual tinkering that I did. I do prefer the Manjaro rolling release method, always fresh, and up to date. So far I have not run into issues with it. I did manage to mess up an Archlinux install, simply because the upgraded Kernel did not support my laptop screens brightness settings a few years back so I had a black screen :) a few hours later, I got it fixed thanks to the community, but I ditched it back then, switched to Antergos on one laptop, and Manjaro on another. Antergos is no more, so that laptop became an Archlinux, Manjaro though still runs on my main laptop. I am considering buying a 120GB or maybe even a small 64GB SSD for my desktop, and start fresh with Manjaro on it.
  Anyhow, I just wanted to share some thoughts, there you have it. I hope 2020 I will be more active "as I say every year" :)

Upgraded Desktop to 14.04

  As soon as Ubuntu 14.04 came out, I wanted to get the upgrade.  And the other weekend I did.  This meant a bit of instability on the first few boots, but it went away.  One thing I didn't check on, which I should have is the status of my Software RAID.  It seems after the upgrade it went out of sync, and I didn't give it time to sync up.  So yesterday, I ran an update, and accidentally thought of checking my Disk status.  And that's why the system was bit hung.
  My desktop is a bit of a mix.  I use GNOME, and KDE, my wife uses GNOME.  This sometimes causes conflicts, on my desktop.  I am hoping to clear those up.  For example, I can't properly run a distro upgrade from KDE, I had to login it GNOME, where I was able to upgrade my system, not sure why, but it worked this way.  Is upgrading worth it, so far I haven't seen the benefits, except that digiKam is the upgraded version, which I am happy for.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on an Asus E1-522

This weekend I had the fun of installing Ubuntu on this machine, well it wasn't easy. UEFI wasn't fun, had to switch to legacy. And save yourself a headache do the install with network connection, enabling the option of upgrade while installing. The ATI radeon 8830 can be tricky, the version that comes with LTS is a beta version, which will be upgraded after the first boot. The system still runs into errors here and there but it works. Shutdown doesn't work properly, some KVM errors can be fixed that show up on boot, every fix can be found on Google. The machine is OK specially for it's price.

Switched from Gnome, to KDE

Been using Gnome for the past 4 years at least, but I decided to switch to KDE after trying it again.  I seem to recall that KDE wasn't stable enough.  I must have tried it when v3 was having stability problems, and then v4 was in between as well.  Lately, I switched to the latest that comes with Ubuntu 13.04 and I like it more.  It get more tweaking, and it's pretty stable.
Gnome has become too minimalistic to my taste, although I like the approach, but too much tweaking was needed to customize it to my taste.
I also like digiKam application, it's way better than shotwell.  It's got a two pane comparison window when editing images, that is an excellent feature.  I do feel that shotwell is faster a bit, but I can live with the slowness for those options.

Flash nightmare Kubuntu 12.10

I tried to install Kubuntu for an elder couple, mainly they use it for surfing, youtube, email. I've installed linux on so many older systems, and never had a problem getting flash player to work until now. I started with the LTS version 12.04. Removed, installed and re-installed flash with no luck. Then I decide to go to the latest version 12.10, re-installing flash, and gnash etc... no luck.  Still fighting against the machine.  Funny thing is I've been using Ubuntu for over 10 years now, I've had headaches, with flash and a few inconveniences but this time it is annoying.

Cheap linux box

  My trusty laptop batteries started to deteriorate.  I also realized that editing pictures over the network via the NFS isn't that effective.  The problem was that I didn't tag my pictures properly, since I didn't think I would ever want, or need to create picture collections of say family, or travel etc...
  I decided to build a box, for under $250 I got a pretty good deal.  I already had the monitor, since I used the laptop with dual monitors, and I had 2 Hard drives as well.  Final build :

• MSI s775 G41M-P28
• Intel E6600 3.06Ghz
• 8 GB DDR3 Memory
• 2x 500GB SATA drives using Software raid 1
• Intel GMA x4500 built in graphics
• 22" LG 1680x1050
• TP-Link Gigabit Router 
• OS Ubuntu 12.04

  I hope it turns out to be good, I still need to think of a backup strategy.  Having a NAS which has a media server, I don't think I need to store the music and video files on my local HDD...

Upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

I finally upgraded to the latest release of Ubuntu.  The upgrade went smoothly and with out issues this time.  As the last time I had problems with my graphics card after the upgrade.  At this time I can't tell if it's worth the upgrade or not.  It's stable and running fine, but can't really say it's any faster.

Switched from OpenSuSe to Ubuntu 9.10

Well, I was really satisfied with OpenSuSe, I just had one problem in OpenSuSe. It couldn't handle dual displays well. Not sure why, but I wasn't able to use my External LCD. So I tried the live CD from Ubuntu 9.10 and it worked just fine. So I backed up my files, and did a clean install of Ubuntu 9.10 on my Inspiron 1318. And honestly I am more than satisfied with it. VPN setup was a snap, it even automatically identified and installed my WiFi card, which I had to do manually in OpenSuSe with Ndiswrapper it worked but in Ubuntu it was automatic. Which is great. Anyhow, I am glad I switched to Ubuntu.