On Sun, Aug 20, 2000 at 05:06:06AM -0400, Asheesh Laroia wrote:
> Hello everyone!
>
> I have a friend who I'm trying to introduce to Linux. I installed
> Linux-Mandrake 7.1 on his system, and everything worked. However, it is
> extremely slow at networking, and swaps all the time. His machine is
> connected to a Road Runner cable modem, so the internet access should be
> extremely fast, but it's not. Netscape gets ~2K/second, and is "slower
> than Windows." He also has Win95 installed in /dev/hda1.
>
> It's installed on a 900MB / (ext2) partition, and has a 120MB swap
> partition (hda5 and hda6, respectively).
>
> If any of you have Linux-based systems running on 32MB, and don't feel
> it's frightfully slow to use GNOME or KDE with it, please say so. If you
> have any ideas as to how to speed up his machine (I've disabled apache,
> bind, and other server daemons), please share them with me. He is an
> intelligent person, and a very good computer user, and a programmer. He
> insists he's going to delete it tomorrow, and I'd rather see him happy,
> using Linux for his everyday stuff.
I run a 486 server on 16 MB wih no problems, but I don't run X on it at
all. The conventional wisdom on swap space size is that it should be twice
the size of your physical memory. You have 4 times. That may be part of
your problem. You could try re-sizing the swap partition to 64 MB (using
mkswap, but don't repartition).
However, I think it would be easier and more productive to buy more RAM. I
went from 64MB to 128MB to cut down on Netscape problems, and it appears
to have helped.
You didn't say what your processor is. I conjecture it is not very
new. Graphics, such as fancy windows managers like KDE and GNOME, eat
processor power for lunch.
>
> In a related question, does the new Helix GNOME preview use less RAM than
> its predecessor? I need to know because he needs whatever is the lightest
> windows-ish GUI he can get (no, fvwm is not a valid choice!).
Why is fvwm not a valid choice? After using fvwm for years on HP and other
Unices, I find Windows to be unnecessarily restrictive. It is very
different from Windows, which means a learning curve, but much more
flexible and I find it more productive.
>
> I've also asked my local LUG, but it seems that LUGOR (LUG Of Rochester
> (New York State), USA) is out on summer break.
>
> Please help.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Asheesh Laroia.
>
>
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