[mythtv-users] MythTV CVS / FC4

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Thu Sep 1 17:45:04 UTC 2005


Brian C. Huffman wrote:

>Donavan Stanley <geckofiend at gmail.com> wrote: 
>  
>
>>Minimalist was designed for 720p (1280x720), since you're running at a lower 
>>resolution the fonts get scaled (way) up. Running at 100dpi should help 
>>though.
>>    
>>
>Hmmm...I didn't know that 720p was a common resolution?  Is this for an LCD or
>Plasma?  Is there a theme that would work better for me?  I know that the Blue
>theme did *not* look good as the buttons which are supposed to be round were
>not.
>  
>
It's an ATSC format for high-definition TV (see 
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/what_is_ATSC.html ).  It uses the 16:9 
(widescreen) aspect ratio--thus the name for this widescreen theme:  
"Minimalist Wide".

>>Why are you running KDE for a Myth box? Lots of overhead and startup delays 
>>for zero benefit.
>>    
>>
>What do you use?  Jarod's guide suggests KDE mainly due to the fact that Fedora
>Core supports it out of the box and I think there were some focus issues with
>Gnome.  In fact, at one point, I ran with no window manager (just using xinit)
>and also had focus issues.
>  
>
What JDS is saying is that there's no reason to use a "Desktop 
Environment" (i.e. KDE /or/ GNOME - see 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment ) for a machine that's 
not a desktop.  Instead, you should use a lightweight "Window Manager" 
(such as RatPoison, FluxBox, TWM, etc. - see 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_window_manager).  Note, also,  that even 
desktop environments require window managers.  GNOME typically uses 
Metacity (used to use Sawfish/Sawmill) and KDE uses one (but I have no 
idea which one).

Note also that all of these require a Windowing System--i.e. X Windows 
(generally XFree86 or X.org - see 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System ).  So, basically, from the 
top down, you'll see:

Desktop Environment
        ^
        |
  Window Manager
        ^
        |
 Windowing System


When it comes to Myth, the desktop environment on top of the window 
manager is adding nothing to a Myth box, so it's wasting 
memory/resources.  And, since ALL desktop environments (KDE, GNOME, CDE, 
etc.) are very heavyweight applications, it wastes a lot of resources.

Unfortunately, many people do not distinguish between these three 
applications, and even when they do, you need to understand the 
terminology to be able to realize that the distinction is being made...

Mike


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