Hello Ladies and Gentlemen!
I saw an interesting Video from The Linux Experiment Youtube Channel about the Ressource consumption of Desktop Environments. I wouldn't see it as representative, but it offers an interesting View on it. So, I want to share it here.
I prefer to watch on tlvids.com:
I would have liked it even more if he tested systemd free OS's, Pulse Audio free OS's. I found that the original PCLOS DE's to be the lightest on RAM usage, even KDE (Plasma) - no systemd, no elogind, no Discover, only Synaptic Package Manager for Application installation and System Updates. The downside no access to virt-manager, only virtual box. There was a move to Pipewire but not able to test it as I have now removed my nVidia GT440 now that I am running PCLOS Debian, using GT1030.
But that was only about the Vanilla Desktop Environments without any Changes or Optimizations. And that he took Fedora was not a bad Choice in my Option because this Way it was the same Base System. And the Desktop Version were on an (relatively) up-to-date Status.
And therein lies the problem. It should have been more objective. The issue with a Vanilla desktop is that it is not optimised by having reduced bloatware like systemd, which will make up a large part of those 439 running processes. I rest my case. I've never taken to Fedora anyway. PCLOS Debian has most of those environments, including Mate, but interestingly, no Gnome.
Having mulled things over a bit more, Slimbook wiil probably have honed the OS that they ship with Slimbook to achieve the acclaimed battery life. Batteries are a different ball game to, being provided according to the needs of what is inside the notebook. Wifi, Bluetooth, Optical drives, screen brightness, GPU usage all contribute to battery life. Also the notebook used for the experiment was a dedicated GNU/Linux notebook. I appreciate that Nick is not likely to be given a Windows based notebook to review, but would be interesting to see what does and does not work well on a machine that was built for that other OS.