I have a fc4 and it is very slow. Any idea to improve performance without upgrading the software? (Too many work related stuff there and I don't want to cause trouble at work)

If you mean Fedora Core 4 then I do not recommend that you should still be using it at all. This system is well out of date (it was released in June 2005) and the security is now an issue, especially considering you have vital files for work.

If your PC is to old for the new Fedora, then simply choose a distro that is rpm based and lightweight. How about giving Fedora 13 XFCE edition a try.

I would recommend partitioning your hard drive using Gparted from a liveCD (eg if your hard disk is 40GB then resize the current partition to 20GB and create a new partition of 20GB) and then testing out some distros. Once you have settled on one then you can move all your old files etc over to the new partition. I think that this will be significantly safer than trying to speed up a distro from 5 years ago.

Got to agree with kmacphail. Fedora Core 4 is ancient...the latest is 13. If the machine has been around that long, it's VERY overdue for an upgrade.

And if a planned outage is going to cause trouble...think about the UNPLANNED one you're going to have, due to security problems, old hardware, etc., when that box finally DOES fail.

thanks. I do get a new computer and installed fc13 and upload all the files to the new computer and also a VM. Just wondering if there is a quick way to tune up the fc4 so that I can still use it once a while.

I also agree with TB0ne and kmacphail. For someone to want to use a distro that old has got to be out of their minds.

Oh, speaking of which: You can upgrade without erasing your hard drive, you know that, don't you? Just add the Fedora 13 software repository and run the following command:

The command will prompt you for a root password before you can continue, but what you will end up doing is installing hundreds of software updates in the form of packages, not a clean installation.

tune up fedora 4 -- on old hardware NO

install xfce desktop( and use xfce not gnome or kde) on fedora ???
but i would install puppy or DSL

You know, you could run plasma-netbook on the old hardware but that still would cause problems.

What about Ubuntu Netbook Edition?

Post your hardware specs, eg. cpu, ram, graphics card, hard drive etc. Without that info, everyone is just guessing about what would run decently on your old box.

Dell Latitude D810
memory 2G
hard drive: ATA HTS726060M9At00 50G
I looked at monitor, firefox used 36% of CPU, and firefox is very slow.

it is a old Laptop -- that explains it

then the " slowness " is mostlikely do to using fedora 4 on a old LAPTOP

you might be able to run a modern "netbook / or notbook" OS on it

also you DO realise that fedora is a TESTING and RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT distro
and as such not everything will work right 100% of the time
AND VERY VERY IMPORTANT fedora ONLY has 13 months of support and releases a NEW ( very new) version EVERY 6 MONTHS
you MUST MUST reinstall fedora EVERY 6 months or reinstall a skipped version EVERY 13 MONTHS
so in aprox 4 to 5 months fedora 14 is out -- or -- in a year you MUST install fedora 15 !!!!!

newcat,

You, definitely, can tune up even older distro. I always disable the start up services that I do not use. Example:CUPS (if you are not using print services, smart card daemon, bluetooth, etc..). I believe, it improves security and frees up some resources. There are several ways to do so:
1. System --> Administration --> Services.
2. In command line type system-config-services.
3. In command line type "setup", then pick "System Services". Uncheck un-wanted services.
4. Use the "chkconfig" utility. Usage of that tool on newer distros slighty varies from older. Run /sbin/chkconfig --help to find out usage on Fedora 4.

You can also disable some un-wanted services in your Gnome Session startup (assuming, you are using Gnome).

nigerag : there is old and old and DEAD
RHEL 4 is old BUT still supported
rh9 is old and DEAD
-- fedora --
fedora 12 is old and supported
fedora 11 is old and UNSUPPORTED
fedora 4 is past old and is DEAD


rhel and CentOS work fine on older hardware
and centOS 5.5 still has a few YEARS of support left

but for a liatop i would not use cent
mint or Ubuntu notebook , or any of the new "notebook" versions should be fine

Your hardware is old but still very usable IMHO.Your weakest point will be your cpu; it's a Pentium M, probably around 1.5GHz. You can check that by running this in a terminal:

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

With 2GB of ram, that should be enough to run gnome decently. A lighter desktop like XFCE or LXDE will help performance wise. Most modern browsers will test your limited cpu, however, no matter what desktop you run. If it's just a problem with firefox, you may want to check what extensions you are using. Some firefox extensions can be very cpu intensive, particularly on older hardware like yours.
If your laptop has just recently started slowing down noticeably, it may also be a hardware issue. In particular, you may want to get a can of compressed air and blow out the vents to try and clear the dust that can accumulate there. Clogged vents lead to overheating, which in turn causes the cpu to automatically throttle itself down to prevent overheating. This is a common problem on older laptops.

John VV,

I'm not arguing your point. No doubt, there are several newer alternatives to outdated software. But I believe, the question was - is there a way to tune up a particular piece of software (even outdated and dead), and the answer was - there is. People may have different reasons (even the weirdest ones) for using older software.
By the way, ironically, I use Centos 5 on my 6 years old Toshiba laptop, and it run better than LXDE spin of Fedora 13. Although, I agree, that just refers to lack of my knowledge with newer software.

Thanks for all the replies. The reason I want to use the old piece of laptop is because I want to keep one at work and one at home when I work at home, so that I don't have to carry the new one to work too often. I just need a computer to work on VMs, and of course internet browsing, emailing and printing.. I know some of my coworkers are still using the same old laptop at work.
nigeraq - thanks. I will try it. I think this might be the major reason.
kiloretrout, thanks. The laptop has the heating problem and was shut down a few times before.