Like agent Mulder, I also have something in which I want to believe. Mulder's hope was to find the truth about aliens. Mine to to make my Linux desktop feel fast.
I am composing this message using Ximian Evolution on a Dell GX260, 2.4GHz, 256MB RAM, running Red Hat 9. The computer never really feels fast, and at other times it is downright doggedly slow. To my right sits my venerable Dell GX150, 1GHz, 256MB RAM, running Windows 2000 professional. Until last week, it was my primary desktop. With much excitement, I replaced it with this Red Hat machine. I could hardly have been more disappointed with the result. My Linux machine acts like arbitrary timers and wait states have been inserted all over the place. If I get a couple of windows open, I can plan to wait 2-15 seconds for almost anything I do. Some comparisons: Launch Mozilla: 26 seconds. Launch Evolution: 15 seconds. Start New E-mail Message: 2.25 seconds. Launch Open Office Write: 21 seconds. Launch Gnome Terminal: 6 seconds. Launch Gnome Edit: 2 seconds. Launch Ethereal Gnome: 3.25 seconds. Compare this to similar operations on my less powerful Win2K desktop: Launch IE6: 4 seconds. Launch Outlook 2000: 8 seconds. Start New E-mail Message: 0.25 seconds. Launch MS Word: 4.5 seconds. Launch command shell: 0.5 seconds. Launch notepad or wordpad: 0.5 seconds. Launch Ethereal: 3 seconds. Meanwhile, Linux top indicates 99% idle CPU, with about half my RAM and 25% of my swap utilized. Go figure. What is making my Linux experience so slow? What can I do to fix it? I want to believe. _______________________________________________ RLUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.rlug.org/mailman/listinfo/rlug
