i got quite frustrated with kde4 and it’s bugs/memory overeating/crashing… so, i’ve decided to switch to lightweight xfce and optimize desktop machine a bit…
first, i did some tweaking as said here, then i managed startup programs with rcconf, improved my graphics as described here and finally found decent applications which helped me to forget about kde4 
used before -> using now
kate -> geany
amarok -> exaile
firefox -> google chrome
kontact -> evolution
ktorrent -> transmission
konsole -> terminal
kwallet -> revelation
kopete -> empathy
krdc -> terminal server client
btw. if U think that xfce is ugly, make sure U visit xfce-look and deviantart – U will be amazed!
October 25th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Hmm. Interesting. Well 2 years ago or so I was of the same mind, but these days.. I don’t really get it, unless you are trying to run super old hardware. Each release of Ubuntu for example has been faster than the last for 3 releases, and where as I used to want to step it up, now, even on my laptop I consider Gnome to be pretty darn quick..
October 26th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Keith H, I do not agree on this. This is exactly the type of thinking that created Vista LOL.
Anyway, I’ve just reinstalled Debian and accidentally install KDE3 (in Stable) instead of KDE4 (in Testing) and I remembered why I loved Debian – stable and fast.
Like Keith said, I didn’t even need to run fluxbox to get the performance
October 26th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Hmm… What about LXDE? I tried it and the memory usage was soo low.. made me smirk the first time i logged into an LXDE session.. it also lets you install most of your favorite software because it has the minimal requirements when installed.. Also heard about an Ubuntu version that comes with LXDE desktop environement by default. It’s called Lubuntu if i’m not mistaken
October 29th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
For me the main problem regarding memory ist the Xorg process, which leaks heavily.
Watch it’s virtual memory size over time and you will see it’s growing steadily when starting or using applications.
If you have a desktop session running over days Xorg will end up taking all your swap space.
October 29th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
I have 2 monitors and I’m running Xinerama: 1680×1050 and 1280×1024
now, Xorg is using 770 MB of virtual memory. it’s a lot but it’s less than while using kde4.
anyways… I’m not too happy