Comments on: That’s not bloated, that’s clinically obese

By: Squeeze Me « Linux Expresso

Squeeze Me « Linux Expresso — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:32:38 +0000

[...] Boot of a clean install weighs in around 200MB, RAM wise. Not heavy by modern standards, but obese by [...]

By: It works, but it’s not what I use « Motho ke motho ka botho

It works, but it’s not what I use « Motho ke motho ka botho — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:56:11 +0000

[...] the other hand, whatever memory issue was tormenting Lucid seems to be curtailed in Maverick: My system no longer requires 300Mb just to [...]

By: Look out Ubuntu, look out Arch: Linux Mint Debian « Motho ke motho ka botho

Look out Ubuntu, look out Arch: Linux Mint Debian « Motho ke motho ka botho — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:51:01 +0000

[...] there’s the rub: Ubuntu in its grotesque corpulence, tipping the scales at more than 300Mb just to show a startup screen, is suddenly in a very, very [...]

By: Bloat is in the eye of the beholder « Motho ke motho ka botho

Bloat is in the eye of the beholder « Motho ke motho ka botho — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:30:22 +0000

[...] say software bloat is bad and that you should avoid bloated desktops or inefficient operating systems is simply one person’s opinion. You’re free to agree [...]

By: A reasonable investment or two « Motho ke motho ka botho

A reasonable investment or two « Motho ke motho ka botho — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:04:03 +0000

[...] your machine will arbitrarily make it run faster. I have in the past, but I never will again. Yes, under certain circumstances you will see improvements with more memory, but a clean boot to a lightweight desktop does not [...]

By: Reports from the home counties « Motho ke motho ka botho

Reports from the home counties « Motho ke motho ka botho — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:20:10 +0000

[...] Celeron. It’s a nice machine and works great; the problem is now and has been that Ubuntu has bloated to such a point as to make it [...]

By: bgbraithwaite

bgbraithwaite — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:58:16 +0000

K.Mandla, I won’t argue that DEs (and indeed, pretty much all software in general for every OS and architecture) are not bloated. They probably are quite bloated. My dad used to use a Kaypro-10 (which he still has, by the way) for his word processing needs, and WordStar actually had better features in many respects than, say, the WordPerfect office suite he uses now.

The issue isn’t “bloat”, whether factual or perceptual. It’s about how humans work: we derive most of the information about our environment visually. Most (average) people want and need high-quality visuals to respond to and interact with.

If “bloat” allows the human to work more effectively, then I’m all for it. If it detracts from their ability to work, then get rid of it. Sure, Linux systems are way more bloated than they were in 2003 (when I first ran across Linux in the wild), but they are infinitely more usable for the average schmo, too.

Also, having “human-centric” bloat available alongside your more minimal (or is it maximal?) computing style means that people are able to choose a learning curve most suited to them. Ubuntu’s default desktop is not good for you, either hardware-wise or software-wise, but it may be perfect for a new hacker, or for grandma, or for a new company that needs to have a cheap and usable computer environment right away. It’s all relative to the user’s needs.

By: Five distros for “fast” machines « Motho ke motho ka botho

Five distros for “fast” machines « Motho ke motho ka botho — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:20:17 +0000

[...] harass Gnome users a lot for having overweighted systems, but if you want something that starts clean and small, this looks like a good place to begin. [...]

By: 8.04 might be your best bet « Motho ke motho ka botho

8.04 might be your best bet « Motho ke motho ka botho — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:22:36 +0000

[...] to appear that as Ubuntu ages, it relies on hardware to compensate for software bloat — and the bloat is considerable. I resent [...]

By: Not particularly worried « Motho ke motho ka botho

Not particularly worried « Motho ke motho ka botho — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:38:51 +0000

[...] software to match your hardware, and I would suggest something that allows you to not only avoid the incredible bloat that comes with Ubuntu, but also allows you to take advantage of the power your machine has. It works for [...]