Re: Recommended program version for old and slow computers, netbooks, based on winXP

[Alan B]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Jim McLaughlin 
wrote:

> Alan, thank you for the tip.
>
> I use 4.1.1 on an old Dell Latitude D600, running XP.  I have 2 gigs of
> memory installed (board maximum). The CPU is a now ancient Pentium, 1600
> Mhz.
>
> It takes a  LONG time to boot up.
>

Hello again Jim... just wanted to get back to you on this. My experience
has been that on any given system the Linux distribution that I've tried
has always been faster than Windows on the same system. If you want better
performance without new hardware I suggest trying Linux.

You can test if it gives better performance without making a commitment to
a permanent switch. There are at least two ways to do this:
1. if your pc will boot from USB create a bootable USB and try it that way
2. dual boot (choose whether to boot Windows or Linux each time the pc
starts)

Option 1 is the least disruptive as it makes no changes to the hard drive
and provides fairly good performance
Option 2 is more flexible and has the best performance. Best performance
because works at hard drive speed. More flexible because is easy to
customize add/remove programs from the Linux install.

If you'd like more information feel free to contact me off list. I'd be
glad to share more of my Linux experiences. For me it was a gradual
transition. Used only Windows for a long time. Then mostly Windows and a
little Linux. Then the reverse. And now mostly Linux with occasional
Windows.

You can try it without making an irreversible decision.

-Alan

Re: Recommended program version for old and slow computers, netbooks, based on winXP

[Alan B]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Jim McLaughlin 
wrote:

> Alan, thank you for the tip.
>
You're welcome :-)


> In OO 4.1.1, when I access Tools>Options>Memory and look at the
> QuickStarter dialog in the right hand panel, it provides a box to check or
> not check which has a legend next to it regarding loading OO at system
> start up.


Not clear if the box is checked or not. If not I recommend checking it.


>
> Given the slow system start up I have any way, I'm not so sure this is
> really a "Quick Start" for me.
>

The "Quick Start" is a boost to AOO, not Windows. In fact it *will* slow
the login to the Windows desktop as Windows does the extra work at login of
loading AOO components.

That extra work is basically what you experience loading AOO the first time
you start it after login. If Windows does this ahead of time for you then,
the first time you start an AOO program, it should start as quickly as your
2nd launch does now.

One caveat, my practice for a while now is to wait for the disk activity
light to stop flashing after I login. If I try to start programs while the
light is still flashing it always seems frustratingly slow and, at times,
the program might not even launch.

So, my recommendation...
- make sure the Quick Start box is checked
- after login to the desktop wait until the disk activity light stops
flashing before trying to start any programs

Re: Recommended program version for old and slow computers, netbooks, based on winXP

[Jim McLaughlin]

Alan, thank you for the tip.

I use 4.1.1 on an old Dell Latitude D600, running XP.  I have 2 gigs of
memory installed (board maximum). The CPU is a now ancient Pentium, 1600
Mhz.

It takes a  LONG time to boot up.

In OO 4.1.1, when I access Tools>Options>Memory and look at the
QuickStarter dialog in the right hand panel, it provides a box to check or
not check which has a legend next to it regarding loading OO at system
start up.

Given the slow system start up I have any way, I'm not so sure this is
really a "Quick Start" for me.

Is there something else I am missing which would give a quicker start up
for OO?

I can see the argument that starting OO once only at the start of a
session on the old laptop may be somewhat time saving when compared to
starting and closing OO several times during a  session, but I don't see a
really faster initialization of OO.  All I  see is a  shift of when the
slow OO loading takes place.

Thoughts, comments, additional tips on the slow OO initialization issue
Alan, anyone?

Thank you.

On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 5:23 AM, Alan B  wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 3:25 AM, Pasha Gmail  wrote:
>
> > Please advise, which Open Office version I need to download from OO site
> to
> > get best performance for Old computers and Netbooks with slow disks and
> > based on Windows XP OS.
> >
>
> Pasha, if you don't have a requirement for Windows my suggestion would be
> switch to Elementary OS, https://elementary.io/. It's a Linux distribution
> built with a focus on fast performance. I'm using it with AOO latest
> version on 5 year old laptop (Pentium T4500 @ 2.3GHz and 4 GB RAM) with
> very good performance.
>
>
> > I had very unpleasant experience when Just start of any program from
> > the ОО package
> > took 1-3 minutes at my Samsung Netbook. Next start was normal, just
> > seconds, but first – it was something! I used the program couple years
> ago.
> > Maybe some optimization was done since then? Which version would you
> > recommend for XP ?
> >
>
> To improve AOO start time make sure the OpenOffice Quickstarter is enabled.
> Find that by Tools > Options > OpenOffice > Memory and tick the "Enable
> systray Quickstarter" item.
>
> Since you describe slow start on first opening any program and normal
> starts thereafter I expect you will find Quickstarter is not enabled.
>