linux is slower than microsoft windows
 

hello

i hope no one takes me wrong

but thats the truth... in my computer

i have a old laptop, compaq notebook 100 475mhz 64mb
im a normal person who's work has absolutely nothing to do with computers. i just use my computer at home as any other normal person does.
like many people i also spend LOTS of time at the computer, this means that i have have learned a lot about microsoft windows, i mean about tweaking and settings, etc. for example in this laptop i use a special version of microsoft windows millenium edition that uses the microsoft windows 95 explorer.exe and has no internet explorer, it's a lot faster!

but i really wanted to use a free operating system, linux. i really want to use...
but the truth is that it runs S-L-O-W. im posting this message in this forum because im a linux newbie, i know almost nothing and i have no friends to help me. being a newbie means that maybe i missed the simplest thing to speed it up or something.

i use the last version of slackware with the last version of fluxbox... i don't know what else i need to tell you... i didn't install kde or gnome.

why i say that slackware is slower? because i use mozilla firefox in both operating systems, and if i open the same websites (normal sites, web messenger, etc) everything runs faster (and i can even open other applications) in microsoft windows.

ohhhh, why? i really wanted to use linux

tell me if you want to know anything else to help me with my problem

thanks for your time

how much swap space are you using with linux? and what kernel? I use iceWM on my computers that have that little ram.

how can i view the swap space?

i use the default slackware 10.1 kernel

to see your swap and how much you use (at the bash prompt):

free

and for your kernel:

uname -a

post the output of these commands.

almost forgot do this with the WM loaded (full gui running just like it is when it's slow)

the command top will show you which programs are running, and how much memory they're using. i think you press > once to sort by %mem. there may be services running that you don't need (sshd comes to mind, for instance).

booted and log in as my username "username" he he, startx then xterm and then SU
and did what you say

bash-3.00# uname -a
Linux hostname 2.4.29 #6 Thu Jan 20 16:30:37 PST 2005 i586 unknown unknown GNU/Linux


bash-3.00# free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 53556 49940 3616 0 492 17676
-/+ buffers/cache: 31772 21784
Swap: 112448 8064 104384





top - 22:10:04 up 9 min, 2 users, load average: 0.31, 0.32, 0.19
Tasks: 34 total, 3 running, 31 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 4.3% user, 2.3% system, 0.0% nice, 93.4% idle
Mem: 53556k total, 50392k used, 3164k free, 496k buffers
Swap: 112448k total, 8064k used, 104384k free, 17972k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
458 root 15 0 28884 16m 1964 R 4.9 30.9 1:26.95 X
522 root 12 0 1032 1032 824 R 0.7 1.9 0:00.08 top
465 username 9 0 2536 2260 1716 R 0.3 4.2 0:00.80 xterm
1 root 9 0 60 56 32 S 0.0 0.1 0:04.55 init
2 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.14 keventd
3 root 19 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd_CPU0
4 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.17 kswapd
5 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 bdflush
6 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 kupdated
10 root -1 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 mdrecoveryd
71 root 9 0 296 256 256 S 0.0 0.5 0:00.01 udevd
72 root 9 0 668 560 500 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.01 cardmgr
159 root 9 0 480 424 424 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.00 dhcpcd
221 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khubd
412 root 9 0 1216 1104 960 S 0.0 2.1 0:00.23 sshd
420 root 9 0 584 584 504 S 0.0 1.1 0:00.01 crond
428 root 9 0 464 460 416 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.01 gpm
430 username 9 0 1396 960 960 S 0.0 1.8 0:00.14 bash
431 root 9 0 464 416 416 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.00 agetty
432 root 9 0 464 416 416 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.00 agetty
433 root 9 0 464 416 416 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.01 agetty
434 root 9 0 464 416 416 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.00 agetty
435 root 9 0 464 416 416 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.00 agetty
445 username 9 0 1188 904 904 S 0.0 1.7 0:00.05 startx
457 username 9 0 632 540 540 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.01 xinit
462 username 9 0 3264 2912 2472 S 0.0 5.4 0:01.86 fluxbox
467 username 9 0 1372 948 948 S 0.0 1.8 0:00.04 bash
469 root 9 0 1464 1208 1144 S 0.0 2.3 0:00.08 bash
475 username 9 0 1324 1008 1008 S 0.0 1.9 0:00.09 firefox
495 username 9 0 1332 984 984 S 0.0 1.8 0:00.08 run-mozilla.sh
500 username 9 0 23732 21m 11m S 0.0 41.6 0:45.15 firefox-bin
502 username 8 0 23732 21m 11m S 0.0 41.6 0:00.00 firefox-bin
503 username 9 0 23732 21m 11m S 0.0 41.6 0:00.31 firefox-bin

ugh, next time use the code tags when you post that stuff, so the formatting is easier to read, lol! my poor eyes!

anyway, it looks like X is using 30.9% of your memory, which definitely sounds unreasonable. i'm not at home, but i guarantee X isn't that much of a hog on either of my slackware machines. do you get any error messages when you start X?

Firefox is supremely slow on Linux. That's just it. Maybe it's because it uses GTK+2 (slow) or that whole XUL thing. I don't know. All I know is that it's way slower on Linux (on my box on several distros in several Window Managers / Desktop Environments). Mozilla seems to be a little faster but not much. Epiphany and that other one I can't remember the name of in Gnome are faster. Konqueror in KDE is waaaay faster.

Same thing with Azureus. Check out the population slowness of the files tab (when you have a torrent with a lot of files in it).

Gentoo runs well on older boxes maybe try it out. Post back in a week or two (whenever you get it compiled)

this is after runing mozilla-firefox the same websites as in microsoft windows and xmms

bash-3.00# free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 53556 52360 1196 0 204 8960
-/+ buffers/cache: 43196 10360
Swap: 112448 55612 56836



top - 22:49:53 up 49 min, 2 users, load average: 1.12, 1.09, 0.84
Tasks: 40 total, 2 running, 38 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.0% user, 100.0% system, 0.0% nice, 0.0% idle
Mem: 53556k total, 52144k used, 1412k free, 220k buffers
Swap: 112448k total, 55996k used, 56452k free, 10028k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
591 root 18 0 1036 1036 824 R 99.9 1.9 0:00.35 top
1 root 9 0 60 56 56 S 0.0 0.1 0:04.55 init
2 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.22 keventd
3 root 19 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd_CPU0
4 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:03.67 kswapd
5 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 bdflush
6 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 kupdated
10 root -1 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 mdrecoveryd
71 root 9 0 104 64 64 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.01 udevd
72 root 9 0 300 132 132 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.01 cardmgr
159 root 9 0 172 116 116 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.01 dhcpcd
221 root 9 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khubd
412 root 9 0 392 136 136 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.23 sshd
420 root 8 0 236 188 188 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.03 crond
428 root 9 0 160 140 140 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.08 gpm
430 username 9 0 512 76 76 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.14 bash
431 root 9 0 128 80 80 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 agetty
432 root 9 0 128 80 80 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 agetty
433 root 9 0 128 80 80 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.01 agetty
434 root 9 0 128 80 80 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 agetty
435 root 9 0 128 80 80 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 agetty
445 username 9 0 360 76 76 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.05 startx
457 username 9 0 240 148 148 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.01 xinit
458 root 18 0 33156 6672 5776 R 0.0 12.5 6:53.95 X
462 username 9 0 1916 1324 1324 S 0.0 2.5 0:07.18 fluxbox
465 username 11 0 1816 876 816 S 0.0 1.6 0:01.35 xterm
467 username 9 0 500 76 76 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.04 bash
469 root 9 0 896 588 536 S 0.0 1.1 0:00.19 bash
475 username 9 0 448 132 132 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.09 firefox
495 username 9 0 480 132 132 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.08 run-mozilla.sh
500 username 10 0 41536 35m 27m S 0.0 68.4 11:17.28 firefox-bin
502 username 8 0 41536 35m 27m S 0.0 68.4 0:00.03 firefox-bin
503 username 9 0 41536 35m 27m S 0.0 68.4 0:02.58 firefox-bin
505 username 9 0 41536 35m 27m S 0.0 68.4 0:02.14 firefox-bin
538 username 9 0 2640 1268 1076 S 0.0 2.4 0:04.33 xmms
539 username 9 0 2640 1268 1076 S 0.0 2.4 0:00.00 xmms

Damn Small Linux is good for machines with limited memory.

Anyway, I just want to be sure I understand what you're talking about. What is it that is "running slower"? Is it web page loading? Application startups? What is it that seems slower to you?

Web page loading could be nothing more than a misconfigured connection.

thanks for your time!

it gets REALLY slow when i try to change from one window to another, for example when i have two mozilla firefox windows in two virtual desktops and change from one desktop to another. this is not a problem... i could use only one desktop window, i do that now. but even like that if i open two mozilla firefox windows in the same desktop and try to change frome one to another, it gets slow, even if i try to change tabs inside one single mozilla firefox window!

could it be because of the resolution, i mean, my old laptop in microsoft windows only allows me to have 800x600 but i think that in fluxbox im using 1024x768! i asked a friend how to change it, he told me to edit the xorg file in /etc/X11, i did, removed "1024x768" in the lines but the resolution looks the same.

thanks one more for helping me

64 Mb just won't do if you run a heavy graphical environment. You'll need 128 Mb at least and preferably 256 and use a graphics card that supports OpenGL to take some tasks of the main processor.

Linux runs even with 4 mb if needed, but not with KDE or Gnome on top of that. The underlying X server is also quit heavy, but without that nothing graphical will happen.

Running at higher resolutions is fine, but it takes more memory to store the desktops.

And Fluxbox with Slack is a heavy graphical environment?
I've got Slack-based Vector on a 600MHz, 32 MB RAM laptop with the Vector-customized IceWM. It all runs without problems.