Desktop comparison – Zenwalk Linux, Salix OS and GoblinX

“Everybody’s definition of bloat will probably be somewhat
different, depending on the hardware they have and how far they are
willing to go and make sacrifices on the performance scale to get
their desired useful, functional, friendly desktop. There cannot be
any doubt that, by default, some distributions — and for that
matter desktop environments — are heavier than others, and often
we are asked here on DistroWatch or elsewhere to recommend a distro
that will run well on older hardware, but is still nice to look at
and has the tools available for any job thrown at it.

“I’m a big fan of Slackware because I have always found it
immensely clean, stable, and faster than others. I also like
Xfce-based distributions – they are fast, simple and elegant. For
anybody who would like a slightly friendlier start there are
several derivatives that would fit the bill quite nicely, but they
all appear similar on the surface and any user coming from the
background of a DEB or RPM package distro might find themselves
facing the question which one to bother with. Indeed, do they all
just differ in their wallpapers and kernel versions? This week I’ll
be taking a look at the latest versions of Zenwalk Linux, Salix OS
and GoblinX (g:Mini edition). All three come with Xfce 4.6.1 as
their default desktop environment, although others can be installed
later. This makes for the perfect choice for our objective – a
lightweight but still very functional GUI with a reasonably
populated settings panel for people who do not want to have to edit
text files to get their AfterStep, WindowMaker or IceWM to behave
and look the way they like. There is also Wolvix that would fit
into this category, but it has not had a stable release since
August 2007.”

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