Slow desktop environment
 

Hi all,

My ram is 512 MB and I have a dual core machine. I currently have open suse 10.3 with kde desktop environment on my machine, it is painfully slow !

I ran xfce 4.4.1 instead of kde 3.7.1, though it is not as slow as kde but still I would like a faster environment.

Now I am wondering whether the cause of slowness in xfce is due to suse 10.3 ? If so I am thinking of moving to slackware 12.2 with xfce 4.6.1.
If it is only due to my ram, then there is no use of shifting to slackware !

I currently can't upgrade the hardware of my machine so I am considering upgrading the operating system instead.

I know about Damn small linux and puppy as well but it will be difficult for me to get there dvd/cd.. Therefore the choice with respect to speed is between suse and slackware only.

Kindly guide !

If you can't add RAM, use a lighter windowmanager
Take a look at
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-842-x11-window-managers

Thanks for the reply!

I will consider your opinion, but I am still confused with the following question:

Try turning of any services/processes you don't need. What video card are you using? If you have a nvidia or ati make sure you are using the 3d drivers. Kde4 tends to be a bit slow. You might try LXDE rather than kde/gnome/xfce as well.

Thanks for the reply, but I don't have any nvidia drivers nor kde 4.
I have kde 3.5.7

I shall try LXDE as per u r advice though i have never heard of it!

@craigevil

Oh I just looked at LXDE website, it seems to be great !

Thanks for the help again !