i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

I recently became aware of the lxde desktop.  The concept is that it is a low overhead desktop, good for old computers and net books.  (Or, making anything else go faster, I suppose).

...

I had some trouble getting it to install on my netbook, though it installed just fine on my Sony laptop.  Both are running OpenSUSE 11.2, so I don't know what the glitch was.

I have experimented in the past with IceWM and other minimalist desktops, but ultimately I was not able to obtain a significant performance boost over KDE 4 for the software I regularly use and at the same time, setting up everything was considerably difficult to arrive at a satisfactory configuration.

LXDE adopted a great deal of my KDE setup, including running the KDE 3.5 panel at the top of the screen, which I start via the "autostart" selection in the KDE personal settings system.  LXDE seems to adopt liberally from both GNOME and KDE.

Since my Netbook won't run compositing effects anyway, not much lost there.  It's a bit more difficult to set up numerous icons on side panels to launch my most frequently used programs -- I have to first create entries in the menu system, instead of just dragging the desktop launchers I have created in "bin" that are usable in plasma.

It's not entirely clear to me what advantage I am obtaining running LXDE.  KDE plasma doesn't seem to have much overhead, especially at idle.  Firefox does not seem to come up any faster as far as I can tell (did not do any actual timings).  Chromium, on the other hand, is extremely fast.

[But if anyone can tell me how to get chromium-browser to launch a url via command line, I would greatly appreciate it.  No amount of research has solved this problem for me.]

I really like the simplicity of lxrandr, as compared to kdrandr.  I need to run this, since my netbook comes up in 1366x738 and I want to run it at 1920x1084.  (Well, these are my best recollection of the resolutions at the moment, without actually checking.)

I have so far searched in vain for a way to put widgets on the desktop.  I assumed I would be able to run google gadgets, but so far, no.  There isn't much I want to put there, just a clock and some weather info.  Other than that, there isn't much different visually between my lxde desktop and my kde 4.4 (RC3) one.  The theme I am using is more basic, but suits me fine.

For some reason I can't get individualized icons to show in the application launch bar for launchers I create relative to my own scripts, etc.  Icons change ok in the menu system, but when I drag them to the launch bar, they revert to the GNOME default.  Launchers that simply run actual programs (Fifrefox, Akregator, etc.) do display the correct icon.  But, the situation is a bit inconvenient as I use a lot of small icons and need visual differentiation so I can remember which is which.

But then again, I have only been testing lxde for 24 hours, so there is probably a great deal I don't know yet.  Better get on the mailing list or RSS feed!  If I can achieve faster execution for the software I regularly use, I'll  be a very happy camper.

One thing that does seem noticeable, at least at the moment -- I do not seem to have a problem with the cursor jumping paragraphs and so forth.  This is a consistent problem for me in most software and has been so over the years on computers dating back to the cpm days.  I type fairly fast and I think that certain key combinations can result in cursor movement codes.  (Another problem also arises from touchpad sensitivity, but as far as I have been able to tell, these are two different issues.)

In any event, I have successfully typed this entire post without having to track down where my cursor has jumped to, which is a significant positive.

I'll also contrast my experience (so far) with LXDE and Puppy Linux, since my goal in trying each was the same -- faster performance, runs on old equipment.  I spent considerable time with Puppy Linux at one point, but for the software I wanted to run, I could not achieve any performance benefits.  It's important to note there is a difference between selecting tightly written, faster software -- which can achieve significant performance gains -- and trying to get feature rich but lumbering programs to run faster.  An example is that chromium is considerably faster than Firefox.  So, I use it on specific websites that I consider (a) safe; and (b) lacking advertising annoyance.  But for general web surfing, I always use  Firefox because of the many useful addons available, such as the essentials Adblock and NoScript.

(Plus, my main document system requires Mozex in order to run local programs from the web browser.  Which inevitably ends up traumatic when Firefox updates to the next version, because Mozex sometimes lags behind and/or I risk losing it altogether if the author(s) abandon it!)

Later: additional comment -- I couldn't find power management software, but lxde runs xscreensaver, which in the advanced options allows shutting down the screen...