BTW, I'm using FVWM as my window manager instead of using a desktop environment like KDE or Gnome. I've tried Gnome before and it doesn't seem a whole lot slower, but it is not as fast as FVWM. Though it takes quite a bit of tweaking to get it set up the way you want it. It doesn't have the features of a full desktop environment either. I haven't used OpenOffice, but I use an old version of WordPerfect for Linux and it's faster than MS Word.
- Craig ----- Original Message ----- From: "Craig H. Block" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 10:50 PM Subject: Re: [RLUG] I Want to Believe > I think you can gain some performance by building your own kernel instead of > using one of the "canned" kernels that come with the distribution. Those > kernels are built to be fairly generic and aren't always optimized for the > system you are running them on. > > I'm running X-Windows on a 750 MHz AMD T-bird with 256M of memory. It feels > much faster than my MS Windows machine (1 GHz T-bird w/256M) at pretty much > everything it does. My Linux system is optimized with my own custom 2.2 > kernel and I'm running DMA 66 disks with DMA enabled using hdparm. > > It's possible there may be some kind of hardware situation that's slowing > yours down a lot. Big name machines like Dell aren't necessarily that > compatible with Linux. They're really designed for Windows and I've seen > performance problems with Dell's just running Windows XP. For that reason, > I built my machines with hand picked components that are known to work well > with Linux. > > Well, good luck and I hope you can get things up to speed. > > - Craig > > > > On 12 Jun 2003, Eric Robinson wrote: > > > > > 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 > > _______________________________________________ RLUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.rlug.org/mailman/listinfo/rlug
