Ok just to check, your 9200se is set up right?
have a look here
http://www.ausfx.com/forum/index.php/topic,1831.0.html

part of the problem is that you're using KDE. GNome on debian runns on my r3000z compaq latop better than windows does. LInux also multi-tasks better. also your RAM usage include the kernel cache, RAM being used to store programs that you've just run so that if you reopen them, they'll open quic cker and be more responsive.

I have a 1Gb of Ram, and actual usage is usually 100-200 Mb's but RAM IN USE tends to be 700-800 M, depending on what I"ve recently run.

If, and I repeat, IF Linux is slower than windows, it's because your installation is more bloated than windows. It takes time to mount partitions and run the filesystem checks. The more there is to boot and check, the longer it takes.

You are using one of the largest distros (I don't want to say bloated. SuSE installs a lot of stuff. Some of it you need/want. Most you don't).

To speed up your system, remove the 'stuff' you don't want/don't need/won't use.
Remove aplications first; remove libraries last. Reason: if you try to remove libraries first, YaST will complain about applications which depend on those libraries. Remove the apps first, and YaST has few reasons to complain.

Remove language support for languages you can't read/speak/understand. Do you really need to see Chinese characters displayed in your web browser? Same question for other languages.

Basically, you probably chose the standard installation. Now, pare it down to a custom installation, keeping only what you need/want/expect to use.

Set up categories of 'stuff' to remove, and take them one at a time. Don't overload YaST. Take your time.

Remember: libraries LAST!

As your remove 'stuff', your boot time will decrease. My SuSE takes about 4 minutes to boot. My SourceMage takes about 10 seconds (for now, because I have a bunch to add yet). My first distro (OpenLinux, before the merger with SCO), took all of 29 seconds to boot into usable mode.

It's up to you. Trim the fat and decrease the boot time.

4 minutes to boot!!!!

WOW!! that is very bloated. If it takes longer than 30 seconds for me to boot up i start feaking out.

problem number 1
Beta version of KDE
and KDE 3.3 derivitives much bulkier & slower then 3.4 or 3.2.3.

and being a fellow AMD user the distros come with KDE that doesnt work as fast as those compiled by you on you AMD machine
this makes it easy if you wish to try it.
http://developer.kde.org/build/konstruct/
http://developer.kde.org/build/konst...stable.tar.bz2

Bah.

I dual boot Windows XP and Suse Linux 9.1/KDE 3.4 and I find that Linux is much, much faster to boot and run apps under Linux (even Windows apps via WINE) than under Windows.

This was true of my old motherboard, a dual Pentium III, and my new one, a Pentium 4 3.2E (Prescott core). Both configurations have 1GB of RAM and the Pentium 4 runs a stripped-down WinXP installation (no third-party desktop enhancements at all). Needless to say I don't boot to Windows much - only ~8 times so far this year. I do need to get around to reinstalling Flight Simulator and take a few flights one of these days, but I so dread booting to Windows that I haven't gotten around to it.

Its you.

Seriously, you should see linux faster than the bloated POS WinXP. I dual-boot SuSE 9.2 and Win2K and notice SuSE much faster, though it takes forever to boot. (I run Apache, MySQL, NTD, Postfix and a few other services I probably shouldn't.)

First off, I think its been mentioned, check your DMA settings. This will speed things up tremendously.

Second, make sure you're not running any wierd or unneeded processes. For example, if you send mail through your ISP, turn off any mail servers.

Third, that swap space seems a bit large. I dunno, though.

Fourth, check which theme you're using. Some of the themes are really heavy on the eye candy and slow the system down a bit. I use thin keramic... http://www.perfectreign.com/stuff/mplayer_blue.jpg (That's from a screen shot last month of a question about capturing Quicktime screens, hence the blue in the browser.)


As for KDE vs. Gnome, I don't know. Gnome I've heard is a bit faster than KDE but it is ugly as heck. Therefore I don't use it.

KDE 4.x is supposed to be way faster than 3.x is. You

One thing which worked for me (with Suse 9.3) is typing the following into the shell,

1. su
2. hdparm -d1 /dev/dma

This will enable DMA for your harddrive, which wasn't set up by default on my installation, and perhaps on your too if it's Suse.