FC3 sucks. It takes up too much memory!

[Mark Eggers]

Let me see if I can shed a little light on this.  I can possibly tell
you how to shut things down as well.  I use KDE, so your commands may be
a bit different.

On Thu, 2005-01-27 at 12:45 +0800, Edward Yang wrote:
> I am *not* exagerating. Please look at the attached screenshot for
> detail:
> 
> 1. I think eggcups is the process for printing. Why it takes up more
> than 40mb memory? On Windows 2000, the spooler printing service takes
> up only a little more than 4mb memory and less than 3mb virtual
> memory.

This is virtual memory, which if I recall correctly includes all of the
shared libraries the program references.  The actual physical memory for
printing is about 7.8 MB on my machine.  Certainly it's not the lightest
application in the bunch, but it's by far not the biggest.

> 2.  And, eggcups belongs to my session. I am not familiar with the
> terminal concept. I guess if a user logs on thru a dumb terminal,
> he/she will get his/her own eggcups; and 40mb memory will reduced from
> the server. Is my guess true?

Again, I doubt that you will use an additional 40 MB.  However you
probably will use an additional 7.8 MB.

> 3. If I 'kill nnn', where nnn is the pid of eggcups, it somehow
> respawns. How can I stop this? Anyway I don't want printing service
> right now, I am just learning programming on Linux.

You can turn off printing for the entire box.  In KDE, the menu entry is
under System Settings-->Server Settings-->Services.  You'll want to turn
off cups, cups-config-daemon, and cups-lpd if it is enabled.

In general, you can save memory by eliminating unneeded services, much
like you would mark services as manual or disabled under Windows.

> 4. I don't want xscreensaver, because I am running FC3 inside
> Microsoft Virtual PC. How to stop it?

In Gnome, the default desktop, you can disable screen savers under
Preferences --> Screensaver

> 5. What is gnome-vfs/esd? Are they a must to for a user session?

I think gnome-vfs is the Gnome virtual file system.  This is probably a
must if you're running Gnome (which is the default user interface).  esd
is the Enlightened Sound Daemon.  In addition to providing sound support
for other Gnome applications, it also provides sounds for alerts and
other system functions.  If you want to turn off sound alerts, you can
do this in Preferences --> Sound

> Please forgive me if my post aroused some kind of holy debate. I come
> from Windows world, it's inevitable for me to compare Linux/FC with
> Windows. But I will appreciate very much if someone can help me,
> instead of just saying 'Only newbies don't understand' or even 'Only
> morons don't understand'.
> 

Now, about your way of asking questions.  As been pointed out by many on
the list, your way of asking questions is considered trolling.  Here are
the reasons.

1. You use a general topic
2. You use inflammatory words (sucks)
3. You've not taken much (if any) time to understand how the Gnome 
   desktop works.
4. Your questions are not questions, but complaints.

If you had phrased your query along the following lines, then you might
have gotten a better response.

I am running Fedora Core 3 as a VM process under a Microsoft Virtual PC.
As such, memory is in very short supply.  I would like to know how to
reduce the memory footprint.

a) Can I disable cups?  If so, how?
b) Can I disable sound?  If so, how?
c) Can I disable the screen saver?  If so, how?
d) What other steps can I take to reduce Fedora's memory footprint 
   running in this environment?
e) Where can I learn more about
   1) The Gnome desktop (which is not the same as Linux or Fedora)
   2) Linux in general
   3) Programming on Linux (both console and GUI applications)

Since some of these answers are easily found via Google, showing that
you've at least spent some effort demonstrates good faith.

This is an open source environment, and on this list we all contribute
freely during our spare time.  For example, it's 1:38 AM as I write
this.  I am writing this because I want to help, and I also want to
increase the signal/noise ratio of this mailing list.

In return, I want some demonstration from you (the questioner) that you
will put at least as much effort into learning about this environment as
I have put in writing this message.

While I don't expect it, a thank you wouldn't hurt either.

----
/mde/
just my two cents . . . .