I hated it when Ubuntu switched from Gnome to Unity by default, but I like this move away from GDM. If there's one thing in Ubuntu that's less customizable (in terms of look-and-feel) than Unity, it's GDM.
Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
31–40 of 57 posts
Re: Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
#32Ubuntu choosing a different default display manager is hardly newsworthy, would you seriously discuss Windows or OS X swapping some code behind the login window? I would be more interested in hearing about Canonical putting lots of thought and their weight behind an improved desktop experience developed independently of the current looks and functionality of Windows, especially since for the moment they are the GNU-L…
It's newsworthy when that code is part of the open source community, there are political implications of the switch, and Ubuntu is part of a larger effort to get more people to use GNU/Linux.
Re: Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
#33Does LightDM have all the support GDM does for non-user/password login capabilities, warning banners, etc?
PAM is the standard and it doesn't get more secure, flexible and expandable than PAM. LightDM is PAM compliant so I am not expecting any trouble.
PAM is the standard, yes, but the DM has to support different PAM features (such as smart-card login).
Re: Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
#34Surely GDM will still be available as a package though...? If so, does the choice of default login manager really matter?
Ubuntu is all about the ease of use. How do you explain to your non-technical wife, for example, what a login manager is, what it does and why you'd want a better, lighter one? I like this change. I wish they'd switch away from Gnome entirely and go with something like XFCE by default. I want my DE to take up as little resources as possible out of the box.
In some of the performance comparisons with Gnome, XFCE ends up consuming almost as many resources as Gnome. That's one of the reasons Lubuntu came into existence.
Re: Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ubuntu is all about the ease of use. How do you explain to your non-technical wife, for example, what a login manager is, what it does and why you'd want a better, lighter one? I like this change. I wish they'd switch away from Gnome entirely and go with something like XFCE by default. I want my DE to take up as little resources as possible out of the box.
Personally, I hate XFCE - it's like an interface pulled from 1995. Desktops evolved since then.
Yes they have evolved. Not necessarily for the better IMHO.
Re: Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
#36I like mingetty http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-546544.html
Re: Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
#37I think this is the path that Ubuntu should follow, replace current pieces of software with lighter and smaller solutions. You can always replace them with more advances packages through apt-get.
> I think this is the path that Ubuntu should follow, replace current pieces of software with lighter and smaller solutions.
I fully agree, but am not sure this is an example of that. The article says LightDM uses WebKit. Loading an entire html rendering engine for a login manager seems like overkill.
I guess this explains why LightDM is smaller than GDM in code size - but is it smaller in total size when including all necessary libraries?
Now, some of this might be offset if you have WebKit loaded anyhow as a shared library. This seems unlikely, though,
1. This is the login manager - it's before you load your desktop and web browser. (It might save loading it later though.) 2. The default browser in Ubuntu, Firefox, is not WebKit based. Neither is Opera for that matter (but it is not as popular). 3. The most popular WebKit based browser, Chrome, bundles its own version of WebKit - so there would be no sharing anyhow.
Re: Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ubuntu is all about the ease of use. How do you explain to your non-technical wife, for example, what a login manager is, what it does and why you'd want a better, lighter one? I like this change. I wish they'd switch away from Gnome entirely and go with something like XFCE by default. I want my DE to take up as little resources as possible out of the box.
In some of the performance comparisons with Gnome, XFCE ends up consuming almost as many resources as Gnome. That's one of the reasons Lubuntu came into existence.
Sounds right, but I doubt that's true with compiz
Re: Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Part of this has to do with the cost of Ubuntu. I'm not talking paying developers to make sure it works on the machine, but the actual cost that Canonical charges for the ability to use the Ubuntu logo and becoming "certified"; It's not a trivial amount of money by any stretch. Anyone can preinstall Ubuntu on a machine and release it, they just can't say it is Ubuntu specifically or use the logos. And I don't advocat…
Who are considering becoming certified?
The company I work for. We are a fairly small ODM, and while I don't want to say our name I'm not hard to find on the Internet, and I know I bragged about getting my job (I get paid to work on Linux, still can't believe my luck)
Re: Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM
#40I think this is the path that Ubuntu should follow, replace current pieces of software with lighter and smaller solutions. You can always replace them with more advances packages through apt-get.
> I think this is the path that Ubuntu should follow, replace current pieces of software with lighter and smaller solutions. I fully agree, but am not sure this is an example of that. The article says LightDM uses WebKit. Loading an entire html rendering engine for a login manager seems like overkill. I guess this explains why LightDM is smaller than GDM in code size - but is it smaller in total size when including a…
Empathy (the default IM client) uses webkit to render it's themes. It is quite likely to be a shared library. On natty, webkit is fairly hefty at 24MB but it doesn't take Empathy long to load at all. And by the time your login manager has started /usr is already mounted, assuming you are not using their default partitioning which is one huge partition.