Mandriva 2011 is very slow
 

I'm disappointed with Linux 2011
> I've tried a 32-bit version today.
> I'm not sure what's going on but this is something I've never seen with Linux.
> It's s-l-o-w. I've spent time downloading an ISO image, burnt it onto a DVD and installed it.
> It was as slow as molasses. Of course Nvidia wasn't installed but that has never slowed it down before. It was just working in low resolution, in need of a driver.
> Anyway, I've updated the KDE to 4.6 - a massive system update (800Mb+ download)
> Then I've tried to switch to init 3, from a root terminal. This is when it got really hairy.
> It would flash a startup logo (that spinning ring) then it would switch to a terminal mode with some root gibberish.
> Then I got a blinking cursor in the left upper corner and that was it. Never got to a command line.
> ugh...
> when I press the power off button the computer goes thru a power down mode and shuts down.
> I don't even get to a terminal mode (non-X).
> The most annoying thing is the sluggishness of the system.
> It starts up but it takes 4-6 minutes to get to a somewhat functioning system.
> This kind of performance was Ok for Windows 3.1 :(
>
> Any ideas?

It is obvious you are loading more than your hardware can handle, by the way could you post your hardware specifications? KDE 4.6 with all its things and eye candy can be really slow/heavy if your computer don't a powerful video card, unless you strip it down to run smooth the performance will be poor.

Regards

Well, I have an Athlon 64 Opteron CPU, 2GB of DDR memory and an Nvidia GeForce GT400 video card, plus a 320GB hard drive.
The computer works fine with a 2010 Mandrivia, running a double-monitor video output off of that Nvidia card.
I actually tried a 64-bit version of Mandriva for a few months and it worked really fast. The only reason I'm backporting to a 32-bit system is incompatibilities of a 64B architecture with certain software (Skype, Gooogle Earth etc.) I need to use these programs and a 64B architecture is not quite there yet. I have three hard drives in my computer plus a selector switch (an old Romtec thing) so I can run Linux on one, Windows on another and play with new stuff on the third drive. But I digress..
I think hardware is not a problem here. There is something in the 2011 Mandriva that consumes a lot of CPU/memory resources.
I tried to be patient with it and I gave it time to process whatever it was processing in the background. It finally got to somewhat acceptable speed after 45 minutes. I've started poking around in settings and I discovered things that, frankly speaking, worried me. A firewall is not activated by default, the default system security is 'low' and many basic services were just not enabled on boot.
I adjusted it all to the right settings but still- the system was pretty slow. Not much has changed after reboot. It's still sluggish and unresponsive.

Your computer should handle anything. There's obviously a bug in Mandriva that shows up on your system. If I were you, I'd drop it: it's probably a dying distro anyway. If you are a great Mandriva fan, try Mageia. If you just like KDE, there are plenty of distros to try. If you have a laptop and need encryption, look at Kororaa or Mepis. Otherwise, you could also try OpenSUSE or Salix.

Thank you, I'll try Mageia. I'll keep you updated.

update: I've downloaded and installed the Mageia. It's great! A double-screen video setup worked right 'out of the box'.
I see minor things that need to be adjusted/updated but generally - it's a modern looking system and I didn't have to struggle with installation.
Thanks for pushing me in the right direction!
BTW - this system is a whopping 3.4Gb download. Wow!