Hi,How to make FC4 faster

On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 07:14:34 -0800, CAPSKOV

You haven't given me any info about your system, so I'll give you some general techniques that will work for any system.

1. Turn off all background processes and services that you do not absolutely need. FC4 installs and starts a lot of them that most "desktop" users don't need.

2. Don't run any more apps at one time than you need for your convenience.

3. If you have less than 256 MB of RAM, add more memory. GNOME and KDE are memory hogs. If you DO have 256 MB of RAM, consider adding another 256 or 512. More memory always helps: less swapping means faster response.

4. Consider running a GUI with less memory requirements. XFCE is a good environment and it's 100% compatible with all KDE and GNOME apps.

5. If none of this really helps much, it's time to trade in the 486 for something a little more contemporary. ;-) Seriously, if you don't have at least a 450MHz machine, you're underpowered for FC4 as well as most any other modern Linux distro with a GUI. (There are exceptions, of course, but FC4 isn't one of them.)

6. Faster hard drive or check hdparms

Another thing you might have to do is reboot periodically when things start to get sluggish. I've notice that my install of FC4 begins bogging down after about 6 weeks of "up" time and starts hitting the swap. I don't know if it's FC4 itself or some app or process, but there seems to be a memory leak. Rebooting makes the machine "perky" for another 6 to 8 weeks or so.

For comparison: I'm running a 900 MHz Duron with 256 MB RAM, and my system is quite usable. No screamer, but for e-mail, downloading, web, etc., it's fast enough. Now, if I do even so much as light image processing with even moderate size files (5 to 15 MB), it slows to a crawl quickly hitting the swap like crazy. And that's with only enough running to keep the system running.

Stefan