PCManFM & Thunar

I don't know if anybody else has had any trouble with Thunar being slow, but I noticed it on a couple of other distro installs and then also on this install of Zorin. One of the things that really caught my attention was when I attempted to open a new tab in Thunar. It took several seconds. Everything worked OK, it was just slow.

I installed PCManFM 1.2.5 and don't have any of the slowness that I had with Thunar. Everything seems to be working just fine with PCManFM. I have run into a couple of things I need to ask somebody about. When I launch Task Manager, I see the Thunar --daemon running and using about 37MB of physical memory. Is it necessary for that to be running at all times? If not, how do I prevent that from loading and running?

smhardesty wrote:When I launch Task Manager, I see the Thunar --daemon running and using about 37MB of physical memory. Is it necessary for that to be running at all times? If not, how do I prevent that from loading and running?

It is. The Desktop Environment that you use has an integral file manager. A file manager and a Desktop are so integrated as to be much of the same thing. You canont have a D.E. without a file manager. The file manager does a whole lot more than present a GUI with folders in it.
When you have a D.E. with a preferred file management system like
-Cinnamon : "Nemo FM"
-Gnome : "Files" or "Nautilus (old name)"
-XFCE : "Thunar"
And so on, and then add a different File Manager, then you are actually Only Adding (Or installing) the Portion of the file manager that deals with the GUI, some of the indexing and referencing. The rest of the Desktop 'work' is done by the existing integrated File Manager.

On XFCE, Thunar will handle a large variety of desktop tasks, while your PCManFM will handle opening a GUI and moving files and folders around, only.

OK. I thought that might be the case. I just wanted to check to be sure. I always try and minimize tasks that are running. I also try to minimize the applications that are in the start up. I'm not familiar enough with Zorin to start removing items from my startup yet. I might just list the things I have there and let one of you guys that are more familiar with it let me know what I can safely uncheck in there.

smhardesty wrote:OK. I thought that might be the case. I just wanted to check to be sure. I always try and minimize tasks that are running. I also try to minimize the applications that are in the start up. I'm not familiar enough with Zorin to start removing items from my startup yet. I might just list the things I have there and let one of you guys that are more familiar with it let me know what I can safely uncheck in there.

I understand completely.
And... rather than making a list and asking others, I learned quite a bit by trial and error. This translates to: Destroying my OS and having to reinstall. No exaggeration, probably a dozen or more times. LOL

I use to do the "destroy & learn" thing. I have pretty much given up on that. I guess I just no longer have the patience. I sat down in front of my first computer in 1976. Over the years I taught myself everything I know. I never took a single course of any kind. There were a whole lot of round the clock sessions involved over those years. When I finally hung it up and started drawing rocking chair money I pretty much gave up on all that. I'm much more inclined to simply install a distro that works, make a few tweaks, and then just use the computer. No more of the installing everything I think I might want or need. I remove applications I won't use and install only the ones I know I will use. If everything works, then I probably won't make any changes to the system for a year or more.

Or, stated more simply. I'm old, cranky, and getting pretty lazy.

smhardesty wrote:I use to do the "destroy & learn" thing. I have pretty much given up on that. I guess I just no longer have the patience. I sat down in front of my first computer in 1976. Over the years I taught myself everything I know. I never took a single course of any kind. There were a whole lot of round the clock sessions involved over those years. When I finally hung it up and started drawing rocking chair money I pretty much gave up on all that. I'm much more inclined to simply install a distro that works, make a few tweaks, and then just use the computer. No more of the installing everything I think I might want or need. I remove applications I won't use and install only the ones I know I will use. If everything works, then I probably won't make any changes to the system for a year or more.

Or, stated more simply. I'm old, cranky, and getting pretty lazy.

I feel your pain. I have not been doing it since 1976.. I was born two years after that. And I am still old and cranky.
Have that list?

Not sure how I missed your question about the list. I'll blame it on being old and cranky. LOL! Here it is. There are obviously several more items on the list, but they are all unchecked. These are the only ones checked to startup.

Looking over that list, that is all primarily desktop operating and while I see objects that COULD be turned off, you might regret having them turned off.
You could uncheck the Update Notifier, which I did. I prefer to check updates manually. You maybe could uncheck the Spice guests.
I think that one would be least regret for your list.
But the rest, like updating folder locations, you will really prefer to not have to manually do.

Spice was one of the things I had my eye on. If I understand what it is, I know I don't want it on my PC. It's a remote desktop sharing app. Correct?

smhardesty wrote:Spice was one of the things I had my eye on. If I understand what it is, I know I don't want it on my PC. It's a remote desktop sharing app. Correct?

Well. It is a good thing you brought that one up. See, I use Cinnamon desktop which likes to call the themes "Spices." I have the theme manager called "Spice agent."
A case of mistaken identity on my part- as I briefly forgot that Zorin does not come with Cinnamon (I installed it on mine).

Yes, I looked up spice vdagent and I don't understand how that even got there- Are you using Zorin Ultimate? Because I do not recall it coming with Zorin. It is not something I would use. Too many easy ways of transferring files for me to ever bother with a Fully Remote Desktop. That's a great way to open doors up to unwanted guests.

I have version 15.2 Lite installed and for the most part, it's all pretty much default. I did remove some applications and added a couple, but other than that it's pretty much "stock under the hood".

I agree wholeheartedly with you about remote desktops being an easy way to open your PC to the whole world. I have no idea how it got there. I didn't install it unless it was part of the default install. I'm going to uncheck it now that I know for sure that's what it is. I'm guessing you didn't see anything else I could, or should uncheck.

By the way. It kind of bothers me that I don't know any more about such things. Once upon a time, many years ago, I actually did know things like this. Once I knew I was headed for the retirement patch, I just let things go. After all those years of knowing Microsoft products upside down and backwards, I feel a little useless not knowing any more about Linux than I do. At one point I started studying for the Red Hat Certified Engineer test, then dumped that and switched to studying for the Mandrake Expert exam. Somehow I slowly got away from that, as well. I did manage to complete the CompTIA A+ Certification exam, the CompTIA Network+ Certification exam, and a few of the various Microsoft Certification exams. Then I decided it was kind of useless when it came right down to doing the work.

smhardesty wrote:I'm guessing you didn't see anything else I could, or should uncheck.

The majority of the list is essential to run at startup. Only a few items on the list could be unchecked - like Automatic Updates. But while I normally run that "off" I have left it on on my current build of 15.2 Lite with Cin desktop and it really has not been an issue like it was on Gnome, etc. where I kept the nagware bound, gagged and muzzled.

smhardesty wrote:By the way. It kind of bothers me that I don't know any more about such things. Once upon a time, many years ago, I actually did know things like this. Once I knew I was headed for the retirement patch, I just let things go. After all those years of knowing Microsoft products upside down and backwards, I feel a little useless not knowing any more about Linux than I do. At one point I started studying for the Red Hat Certified Engineer test, then dumped that and switched to studying for the Mandrake Expert exam. Somehow I slowly got away from that, as well. I did manage to complete the CompTIA A+ Certification exam, the CompTIA Network+ Certification exam, and a few of the various Microsoft Certification exams. Then I decided it was kind of useless when it came right down to doing the work.

If it bothers you, then you feel like all the rest of us.
Once you dive in, you will start getting a feel for it and the unfamiliar starts becoming familiar.
I held on to Windows XP as long as I could and aside for a brief stint of about a month on Win 7 when my XP drive died, I went right to Zorin about a year and a half ago as a Fresh Green Linux Newbie. This is currently to my advantage. If I had been using Linux for ten years or if it has been 3 weeks, I would probably be stumped more often. But I am in that time now of Learning the system and doing so while everything is mostly current.

It's a bit like painting the Golden Gate bridge. As soon as you reach the other side and finish painting, it is time to start painting at the other end again. It never stops.

But unlike Windows, with its defrag, Registry, hidden files (And I do mean HIDDEN) and organization that looks like an explosion in a kite string factory, Linux Distros tend to be organized in a linear fashion, easy to navigate (Or find files using terminal "locate" command) and the terminal emulators add an element of power that windows lacks. While you can drop to Command Line in Windows, its usage is not required much of the time and rare. In Linux, it is part of the basic package and heavily relied on, which actually helps users gain far more control of their system, albeit if a bit forced.
Using Windows is like driving an old Toyota Previa with an automatic tranny in the mountains, which has had new components welded on to the sides and no mirrors.
Using Linux is like driving a fully restored 1958 Chevrolet truck through the Sierra Nevada with a 6 speed tranny, 302 under the hood, fully customizable bed, dual side view mirrors and a hot chick next to you.

I completely agree with your Windows versus Linux comparison. I remember all too well all the steps I took to tweak WinXP. I can't recall how many changes I made to the install and the registry, but I did a whole bunch of stuff. I did that for every install I did on my own PCs and my customer's PCs. It was really nice when I finally ditched Windows all together and ran nothing but Linux. I don't remember if it was the first distro I used, but somewhere back there I found PCLinuxOS and ran it for a long while.

Ahhh! My favourite release was PCLOS 2007 (PCLinuxOS). The lead programmer went on a 12 month furlough quite a number of years back and when he came back to resume his duties he was given the elbow! (A bit like Gaël Duval who was sacked by the CEO of the distribution he created). My main issue with every PCLOS install was that when I changed Locale to EN-GB from EN-US the wifi dongle would stop working - annoying!

Swarfendor437 wrote: My main issue with every PCLOS install was that when I changed Locale to EN-GB from EN-US the wifi dongle would stop working - annoying!

Ouch! That's a weird one!