Feels slow...

[crazydemon]

Hey everyone,
I've been dual booting my computer for a while now, running both Windows and Debian. I mostly use windows, but do enjoy playing around with linux as well as getting some work done. What I've noticed though, is that everything in linux feels 'slower' then it does in windows. Shouldn't it be the other way around? I am using the 2.6.9 kernel with Gnome2 and the only differences in hardware is that the linux has runs off a 60GB hd, while the windows uses a 200GB. Both are 7200 RMP ATA100 drives and benchmark about the same both in windows and linux.

THe most noticible part is that applications take longer to load. For example, Firefox in windows starts in about 1 seconds, but it takes about 5 in linux. I am thinking that the filesystem (ReiserFS) might be to blame.

Can you guys recoomend some things I can do to improve performance?
Thanks a lot!

My System specs:
AXP2500M running @2300Mhz (stable)
Abit NF7S v.2
512MB 2700DDR
ATI Radeon 9600 AIW Pro (tried both ati and opensource DRI drivers, which have some effect on the window responce, but none on the loading times, which is to be expected)

[Vergil83]

actually Reiserfs, in my experence is much faster than ext2/3 for example.
take a look here
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/topic-30284.html

[sarumont]

actually Reiserfs, in my experence is much faster than ext2/3 for example.
take a look here
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/topic-30284.html

And reiser4 is superfast. I've not done any benchmarks on it (seen them, though), but I can tell the speed diff just using it. It *is* still not in the vanilla kernel, though. I know it's in nitro-sources (gentoo-tweaked). I think it's also in the mm and ck patchsets.

[jens]

*Rebuild your kernel with less hardware support.
*Drop GNOME/KDE and use Fluxbox or XFCE.

As for browsing, disable IPv6 if you use Mozilla/FireFox

[Vergil83]

however, Reiserfs 4 will not be part of the official release
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal.../msg00229.html
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?.../12/23/2023223

[crazydemon]

*Rebuild your kernel with less hardware support.
*Drop GNOME/KDE and use Fluxbox or XFCE.

As for browsing, disable IPv6 if you use Mozilla/FireFox

I already have the minimal driver support that I need, and I never compiled IPv6 into the kernel either.

As for Gnome / KDE, My system is fast enough that it should handle this no problem. There is not delay minimizing windows / opening menues, ect. Most of the lag is loading applications.