hello, all;
i just started re-using mozilla after a few months of using netscape
4.75.
i am running red hat linux 7.0 (although thinking of switching to ROCK
linux, to cut down on the 'bloat-factor' which i'm beginning to hate
so much.), and running mozilla 0.9, not a nightly build, just the
milestone release. it is under the Gnome environment, using the
Sawfish window manager (although thinking of switching over to
Oroborus window manager again to cut down on bloat.)
i stopped using mozilla those few months ago after trying it because
it was just way too slow for me. it took forever for pages to load,
clicking the back button would freeze the program for at least a
minute while it figured out what to do, all the while the little red
light flashing away, telling me the processor was running as fast as
it could.
now, to be fair, this build i have now is so much better. page loading
is no problem, and in fact impressively fast! and the entire program
loads faster than netscape 4.75 (i think, still making sure). but
there is one problem that remains. although this has also improved
alot, there is still a big lag between where my mouse is on the window
and what it clicks, and what actually happens. when i move the cursor
to hover over the 'bookmarks' button, it takes a good many seconds for
the program to catch up, and allow me to click it. then i wait a few
more seconds for the menu to pop down. this reaction time is much
slower than what netscape 4.75 and all other programs i used were
(even Jarl, a Perl/Tk Jabber instant messaging client i use.)
also to be fair, my system is old. i am running this on a Cyrix 166
with 64 mb's RAM. the only fast thing i have is a DSL connection :) i
am that programmer/user who stands firm against the tide of constant
processor upgrades. :)
i just wanted to know, is this sort of lag to be expected on my
system? a 166 processor, although within the required hardware specs
(barely), cannot be expected to perform any better than that? even
though netscape works fine?
or is there some way i can improve this performance? is the nightly
build improvment on performance? whatabout trying to cut out the fat
of Gnome? i use it b/c i can have an attractive background pixmap and
program launchers both on the desktop and on a panel at the bottom of
my screen. but other than the bit of eye candy and functionality
there, i don't have any real reason to run Gnome. could i improve
performance by switching out of Gnome, to some independant window
manager? any suggestions for a window manager that you like? what
about cutting out any other bloat elsewhere?
thanks all.
