In previous articles, I've focused on helping users of older hardware get the most from it. While most of the FOSS world uses one of the two major desktop interfaces--KDE or Gnome--there are plenty of folks using interfaces that are less resource hungry. While it's important to note here that hogging resources is what one pays for all the nifty automatic features found in KDE or Gnome, in reality there are few other compelling reasons to use either. While XFce is a much lighter competitor for them, the latest version (4.x) disappoints me with its lack of a sound module.
"If you have a sound card and speakers, there's no reason to neglect that fuller experience that comes from a GUI that provides auditory cues for various events. My real favorite desktop/window manager is IceWM. If you've tried it, you already know whether you like it or not. One complaint I've often heard about it is that setting up the sounds associated with GUI events is really difficult. In fact, many people aren't even aware that sound is possible with IceWM. Some distributions of Open Source OSs are notorious for excluding the sound module by default..."
