list of ultra light software for X
If you think xfce is extremely bloated, this list is for you.
I'm trying to make my computer faster by installing the most lightweight software that doesn't compromise on functionality too much and isn't too weird either. Software I currently use is bold, alternatives aren't. Software with problems is between ()s.
window manager: karmen, oroborus
terminal: aterm, xterm
filemanager: currently none in use 
text editor: nedit, gvim
graphics: ?
spreadsheet: (siag has a font problem, but who cares about fonts in a spreadsheet)
word processor or similar: lyx, (pathetic word has a font problem)
"paper" viewer: xpdf, gv, xdvi, gvu
reading files from more "standardized" people and windows users: catdoc, antiword, odt2txt
browser: ? (kazehakase depends on XULrunner, links -g and dillo are not functional enough)
feed reader: ?(liferea depends on XULrunner and gconf)
detect and connect to WLANs: ? (gnome network manager depends on gnome)
Please contribute to this list, but note that software that depends on gnome, kde or XULrunner cannot be considered lightweight. There are a few programs in the list that do have such dependencies, I'd like to replace these. Depending on gtk or qt is ok.
I'm not interested in commandline utilities unless these make other software in the list more useful.
It appears the font issues of siag and pathetic writer can be fixed, see here.
Window managers += openbox
file manager += xfe, mc
WLANS: network-manager as such depends only on dbus, and has both interfaces for gnome and kde. For all I know, there might be some other interface, and writing one shouldn't be too difficult...
music player += xmms2 w/ xmms2tray & abraca, audacious, BMPx
I'd add a few from the top of my head.
text editor: nano (can't be missed) or pico (almost the same)EDIT: Sorry, that's not for X.music player: xmms (I use that mostly these days)
IRC client: weechat-cursesEDIT: Sorry, that's not for X.run command tool: gmrun (awesome in combination with light WMs
I'll add more when I think of it.
Cheers
Guys, read the title again. mc, nano, pico and anything with "curses" in the name aren't for X. Going lightweight by avoiding graphics completely is too easy
.
Oops, sorry I was too quick and missed the "X".
That does make it a bit harder.. I guess PCMan File Manager, xmms and gmrun can stay in the list then, and I'd also add leafpad text editor.
Mc does have some Xterm integration AFAIK, and was gnome's first file manager ;-)
XMMS: I would like to add a clear don't — it's unmaintained, and has been so for ages and ages. It's so unmaintained that, despite the popularity, gentoo have hard-maked it, and debian are discussing (last I read) removal from the archive (other distributions have surely removed it already). Audacious and BMPx are, apparently, good alternatives.
Mc does have some Xterm integration AFAIK, and was gnome's first file manager ;-)
That's not xterm integration, just the usual ncurses mouse support. It works just as well without X if you installed gpm.
I remember there once was a graphical/gnome version of mc called gmc.
I remember there once was a graphical/gnome version of mc called gmc.
that sounds like what gnome would have used, yes...
There is some lightweight GUI stuff in the cool and exotic applications thread too, such as:
One not mentioned yet is medit which considering what you can do with it is quite light. I think it can replace things like kate, gedit and maybe even geany.
Edit: Since it's not available in Ubuntu repos here's a 64bit medit deb package I just built, not that it's hard to build it. I just felt like doing it.
Cheers
pcmanfm uses quite a bit of the cpu, for no apparent reason. Not recommended.
A terminal emulator much nicer than xterm, similar to gnome terminal and xfce terminal: roxterm.
And that reminds me of the rox file manager and desktop, which roxterm does not depend on.
This is damn amazing.
I remember when rox was only a filer.