Linux on the desktop
We've been saying "$CURRENT_YEAR is the year of Linux on the desktop" for about
20 years now and we're still not there yet. I've been using Ubuntu 18.04 and
Gnome on a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon since last October and the stability of
Gnome is disappointing. After a restart, I have a handful of days of usability
before my computer is out of memory. Keeping top open finally revealed the
problem: the memory footprints of gsd-power, gsd-color, and gsd-wacom
– gnome-settings-daemon services – grow over time until my computer's RAM is
almost entirely allocated and swapping takes over. I haven't been able to find
a graceful way to restart these services. Sending them SIGHUP worked once,
memory and usability were regained temporarily, but then the next time it
caused a complete restart of my Gnome session. I'm becoming fed up with this.
Next week I'll test a hypothesis that my Apple bluetooth keyboard and mouse are
implicated. Then, I'll see if some alternative desktop environments aren't more
reliable.