Hi All,
On Sat, 2004-01-24 at 08:32, Saswata Banerjee & Associates wrote:
Vijay is talking about a problem (whether actual or percieved) that GUI under Linux is slow / bulky /inefficient and that this is the reason why more people (specifically cyber cafes) are not moving to Linux as the OS. We need to help him understand this problem and make sure that the message goes accoss to other people also so that they can refute the point in future (even if they are not experts on Linux).
Perhaps someone can summarise the points you have made. They are very valid. a. Increase Swap b. Stop services that are not required c. Get More RAM (since lower ram = more swap file usage = slower / inefficient performance) d. Recomend use of less resource hungary software (galeon instead of mozilla) e. Do not fully shut off software that you are going to use again and again (eg, minimise mozilla instead of closing it when you finish looking at a webpage)
On the other hand, many of the good software in Linux is also not as efficient as they are in MS Windows. A case in point is Mozilla its self. I use Mozilla extensively on MS Windows, it has an option / feature which allows me to set that will keep the software open in background (in system tray) so that when I use it again, it starts up in less than 5 seconds. In the meanwhile it is using less than 1.25mb of ram, which I can afford, and about 15mb of swap file (which I dont mind). I could not locate the same feature in the Linux version of Mozilla. Before using that feature, it took mozilla more than 30 seconds to open every time I started it.
From man pages of chmod
--Quote-- STICKY FILES On older Unix systems, the sticky bit caused executable files to be hoarded in swap space. This feature is not useful on modern VM systems, and the Linux kernel ignores the sticky bit on files. Other kernels may use the sticky bit on files for system-defined purposes.On some systems, only the superuser can set the sticky bit on files ----
That "was" one way of starting an app fast.
However, on second thought, we can send a suggestion to Mozilla team about having Mozilla in two parts - Rendering engine and UI. The engine always runs as a server in background and UI connects to engine for page rendering.
That way an app can start "fast".
I would still say, keep this thread alive, or may be change it to "How to Make Linux look more efficient" ?
Good idea... Let people keep adding tips for various performance enhacements for GNU/Linux.
HTH With regards,