From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Ted Zlatanov Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Emacs as a desktop environment Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 20:05:28 -0500 Organization: =?utf-8?B?0KLQtdC+0LTQvtGAINCX0LvQsNGC0LDQvdC+0LI=?= @ Cienfuegos Message-ID: <87aaebbndz.fsf@lifelogs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1306285552 15942 80.91.229.12 (25 May 2011 01:05:52 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 01:05:52 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed May 25 03:05:48 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([140.186.70.17]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1QP2Xk-0001wR-GM for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 May 2011 03:05:48 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:36703 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QP2Xk-0000Gj-0x for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 24 May 2011 21:05:48 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:36538) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QP2Xh-0000Ge-Mm for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 24 May 2011 21:05:46 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QP2Xg-0001U2-ME for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 24 May 2011 21:05:45 -0400 Original-Received: from lo.gmane.org ([80.91.229.12]:37088) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QP2Xg-0001Ty-HC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 24 May 2011 21:05:44 -0400 Original-Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1QP2Xc-0001u7-OM for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 May 2011 03:05:40 +0200 Original-Received: from c-67-186-102-106.hsd1.il.comcast.net ([67.186.102.106]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 25 May 2011 03:05:40 +0200 Original-Received: from tzz by c-67-186-102-106.hsd1.il.comcast.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 25 May 2011 03:05:40 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 30 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: c-67-186-102-106.hsd1.il.comcast.net X-Face: bd.DQ~'29fIs`T_%O%C\g%6jW)yi[zuz6; d4V0`@y-~$#3P_Ng{@m+e4o<4P'#(_GJQ%TT= D}[Ep*b!\e,fBZ'j_+#"Ps?s2!4H2-Y"sx" User-Agent: Gnus/5.110018 (No Gnus v0.18) Emacs/24.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:GnmPQli4W7zy+BurVDboQkuKuqo= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 80.91.229.12 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:139687 Archived-At: I've been very frustrated lately with the memory and resource use of gnome-panel, XFCE, and the new Unity UI in Ubuntu 11.04. They use multiple megabytes of memory for trivial things; they are slow, and they make a machine with 3 GB of RAM feel slow just doing trivial things. I think GNU Emacs, at least on GNU/Linux systems, can provide much of the desktop environment functionality, so Emacs + a window manager like XMonad is a full desktop experience: - launch bar: a place to put icons associated with a program (simple toolbar) - Applications, Places, and System menus: not sure how to connect those - load indicators (CPU, memory, network load, etc.): can be done with SVG - date, weather, market indicators: SVG and/or plain text - workspace indicator: needs to talk to the window manager - all file management: Dired - icon dock for application and system indicators I'd like to know how much of this can be achieved with today's GNU Emacs plus the external packages (GNU ELPA, Tom Tromey's ELPA, EmacsWiki, etc.) available, and how much will require new packages or changes to Emacs' internals. Thanks Ted