is Xfce getting too bloated ?

[Nikolas Arend]

purslow at sympatico.ca wrote:

>i just ran a test of Xfce 4.1.90 against KDE 3.3.0
>on my Gentoo system with an  AMD XP 2500+  &  512 MB  memory:
>both are set up with  10  desktops (workspaces) & should auto-start
> 2  Konsoles, Mutt, Lynx, Konqueror, Gvim, Gqview, Gkrellm, Kmahjongg ;
>Xfce is also set to launch KDE services (as defined in the settings window),
>which are started automatically by KDE itself.
>
>after a reboot in each case & timed from entering the start command
>to appearance of a desktop (tested by clicking a workspace switcher button),
>KDE took  30 seconds  to start, while Xfce took  32 seconds .
>
>it may be of interest that KDE takes longer to close down
>--  12 seconds  against  4 seconds  -- , which suggests
>that KDE may be more careful about storing session-management information.
>
>also, the Xfce session-manager is unpredictable about what it starts:
>sometimes it doesn't start Konqueror, sometimes not Mutt (only a 3rd Konsole).
>i don't know whether this would also happen with KDE if i used it often.
>both correctly started all applications in the test above.
>
>  
>
Well, I think you cannot compare it that way.
This is exactly what I hate about KDE. In order to run the smallest 
KDE-based application, almost the whole KDE machinery must be started 
(kdeinit). So when you tell xfce to start kde services, you actually 
start a good deal of KDE itself. That of course has nothing to do with 
xfce and its startup time. There is no doubt that KDE is a great piece 
of software and things like the DCOP server might be capable of doing 
great things, but as I see it, the whole interprocess functionality, etc 
that is provided by kdeinit is not necessary in many cases. AFAIK there 
has been a discussion going on between KDE developers about the question 
if the formerly described behaviour should be made optional is future 
releases, but as I understand it, it's quite heavily interwoven with 
many core parts of KDE.
So, definitely, xfce is much more lightweight.

Nick.