Light distros performence cancelled out by modern Apps
  • hbdevelop1hbdevelop1
    PMPosts: 12
    Hi all,
    Not sure if this is the right forum for this. Please direct me to the right one if not.

    I've been using LXLE, for a few months now, on my 1.6Ghz CPU and 12Gb Ram laptop.
    The reason to choose this light distro was to get the most out of this old laptop and to focus all its resources on the task of recording streamed TV programs.
    Unfortunately, I have realized I can't do that. Not because of LXLE but certainly because of Chrome or Firefox hogging the CPU.
    These browsers seem to be the only browsers able to play encrypted streamed video.

    Also, I use vscode for my coding and text editing. And it does take some time to launch.

    So, my feeling is that :
    1- light distros on old laptops are only useful for simple tasks. As soon as we want to do video processing or use some modern software, chances are a more powerful computer is required.
    2- modern Apps are not optimized at all. The companies assume users will use powerful machines.

    What do you think ?
    Thank you  
  • Mr_LinuxMr_Linux
    PMPosts: 72
    I was experimenting with the default browser Seamonkey. I am using it now. Unlike the other name brands, Seamonkey is using 1 process in the task manager.  It is using 269 MB of memory and 2 GB VM.  I know what you are going to say next...

    But Seamonkey won't work with my streaming video service.

    I tweaked Seamonkey using about:config and general.useragent.override is changed to; Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux ppc64le; rv:75.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/75.0

    This totally borked YouTube, but that is not what we want.

    Tubi TV - works! (https://tubitv.com/home)
    Memory 670 MB / VM 3.2 GB

    NetFlix - loaded but failed to play error F7701-1003

    Pluto TV - works! (https://pluto.tv)
    Memory 640 MB / VM 3 GB

    I believe the error with NetFlix is fixable with the correct tweaks.  I didn't go further than changing the useragent. You can test it, just remember this will break YouTube so be sure to copy your original useragent string to a back up file.

    For example;
    old string:
    Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:55.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/55.0
    new string:
    Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux ppc64le; rv:75.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/75.0

    This means you can hold a copy of an older off brand browser and remain active with video streaming. You can also look up other useragent strings to experiment.
  • hbdevelop1hbdevelop1
    PMPosts: 12
    Thank you, Mr_Linux.
    I didn't know about useragent. I need to learn about it.
    I am not sure if this will work with the New Zealand OnDemand TV. That will be great, if it does.
  • Mr_LinuxMr_Linux
    PMPosts: 72
    I cannot watch channel 1 News at Six.

    "Whoops! Looks like you're trying to watch from outside of New Zealand.
    Our videos are only available to watch within New Zealand due to rights
    issues.    "

    LOL Not able to test that at all.
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