Hi,
My introduction to recording studio's on linux was aGNUla DeMuDi, it used fluxbox as its default desktop with a beautiful theme called 'statik'. I still install it now and again just for a look. 64studio keeps it's gnome desktop here I like the theme and have grown quite fond of tux in the background as the system boots.
You would gain some system performance with fluxbox. WindowMaker is also a desktop that you can configure with the most amazing results. Both these desktops will give you a chance to create your own menu, and this is a great way to discover which apps you use the most and those you don't. I use kde also and I must admit I don't notice any great drain on my system, though you do have to tweak /etc/security/limits.conf for jackd to work at its best.
I'm a great believer in optimizing for audio use, in the windows OS environment you had to be.
As for performance their is a lot you can do to gain improvement, eg, stop/remove services you dont use, this will also improve system security. Their is no point in having eg, ssh running if you never intend to use it.
A lighter window manager "will" reduce your system usage but the 64studio defaults work fine here.

dave.

Thanks for your reply, Dave ...

I tried to manage my services at boot, but the Services utility denied me permissions to open it, even in root or sudo mode ...

hi, louphil,

I have two computers with both monitors in front of me,
computer(1) has 64studio 2.0 release and is my main studio, this is left as the developers created it with slight modifications to suit my needs.
computer(2) is used to install release candidates and to experiment (play) with. I know it's for testing and don't mind if I break the install. My install dvd is always close to computer2. Emacs 22 is in testing and I'v broke installs trying to move 64studio to testing/unstable.
Yesterday I installed 64studio testing on computer2. After reading your post on window managers I have installed fluxbox onto computer2 & found the 'Statik' theme. Today is the first time I'v managed to get emacs 23 (yes 23) built on it, so thank you for your inspiration louphil :-)

Quentin wrote

Not Normal

But, not many things are if you try to upgrade from 1.0 to 2.1

Your best bet would be to install the 2.1 release when it comes out! Would save you many frustrating hours.
Cheers,
Quentin

If we are talking about an upgrade from 1.0 to 2.1 here, Quentin's post is a valuable lesson for us all to learn.
64studio is a fine tuned distro developed for a particular purpose. If you have upgraded 1.0 to 2.1 then well done, you will have gained valuable experience, and you have my respect. Then again you must prepare to follow Quentin's advice because it is hard to know what is broken with an upgrade of that nature. You might not know how open your computer is to attack?

note: if your sudoers file is set [ALL=ALL NOPASSWD: ALL] Then you ARE open to attack!. (I comment this out).

To optimize your services, you could try:

login as root, and try from there. (better to be offline when you do this).
(you may have to set your login window to allow this).

If you have problems with the login window:

as your user open a terminal and su to root
# cd /etc/init.d/
# ls -a
you will now see the services, be careful here! you can break your system.....

# update-rc.d -f ssh remove

will stop and remove ssh. Obvious services you can remove are eg, cupsys if you have no printer.
please be careful... Research, and know what the services are for, if not sure, leave them alone.

If you want a copy of the 'Statik' theme for fluxbox we will have to figure out how to get it to you.

Again be prepared to follow Quentin's advice, the chances are a major upgrade 1.0 to 2.1 "has" already broken the system.

All the best,

dave