Beating windows performance with KDE3. Need opinions
 

I've never ran linux (i use mandrake 8.2) on a machine higher then 600mhz pIII with 128megs both at 133FSB. Konqueor and most gui apps and even music/sounds stutter and lag.

Running windows 98/2k on the same system gives me better sound performance and no stuttering of apps loading and screen refreshes... Could this be hardware? I _KNOW_ linux and Kde are better then the performance im getting, but im also confused as you what it could possibly be.

Any help and opions would help me out. Im posting this becuase tonite i snapped and can no longer take windows... stupid viruses via outlook (mail app) and just over all lack of security and way to much stupidity... I will no longer have a windows machine under my roof and now I need to focus in on having my KDE system run 110% better then windows.

Don't think it would make much difference but would a KDE3 workstation run better sitting on Red Hat v.s. Mandrake? Just looking for a rock solid, fast entertainment workstaion (music, flash, gimp, etc.)

Ben.

I got 900mhz and 128 RAM and everything is working fine. Check for the RAM it might not recognise all of it - just a wild guess.
Also check your settings for the screen. If it is something like 1600x1200@160Hz with 24bit on framebuffer that can be your problem

Some people at this forum might hate this idea, but you might consider making it a dual-boot system. I kept a couple gig's on the side to run Windows so that I could play some games and things that are not availalbe in Linux. So now I do internet/email/work in Linux, and I do games in Windows. Just a thought. Good luck.


PS - I have noticed definite performance problems with GUI's and Linux (i.e., RedHat 7.2) on some older computers, but the kind of system you are talking about should be fine.

There are quite a few ways to speed up KDE, but I think the solution would be another windowmanager. KDE has a lot of eyecandy other's don't have. I have just tried xfce, and it doesn't look to bad, and it is also quite userfriendly.

Thanks for all the replies.

I'd like to run at high res and all of the ram IS found so hrmm... Dual booting is not an option becuase after the crash yesterday, I am personally DONE with windows. If something isn't a vailable for linux that i need windows for, I'll search SF or FM and help out with the projects related to my needs so windows will be totally out of the question. :)

I really like KDE becuase of its availabillity/popularity and new features. Im looking for a similar workflow windows gui has becuase it is... i must admit, a decently fast workflow.. IF it works. :) Are their others that have similar task bar, save dialog (with the side options "home" network, etc"), virtual desktops. Also like to keep my OSX like gui theme/widgets for KDE ;). I'd love to contribute to KDE, and i have but very little. Im just not sure HOW to get voice on the ideas I have... It seems everything I mention to other KDE developers, they already know about it and plan to work on it... I think it's just a problem (becuase of the size of the dev group for kde) with Priority. With so many people involved, it's hard to agree on priorities.

It's one of the most popular desktops for a reason and hopefully they will work some of the performance issues out. It's definetly a nice GUI. Just don't know about this stuttering/poping/crackling thing with sound and visuals.

Ben.

Check on that resolution. I got only 900mhz and 128 Ram but also only 800x600@85Hz with 16bit resolution.
I can run 4 videos fullscreen at the same time; with 5 it starts to fall apart.
If you already got a problem with sound something is defininitely eating your resources.

Looks like enlightenment will be coming out with a helluva gui soon. Taskbar and all it may be what you are looking for, I know it looks like it might be what I am looking for. Also, where did you get your RES from? I used to get crackily sound, but then I started using other software, some based on mpg123 and it has since gone away. Winbloze would be outta my house too if I could convince the wife that it's for the best. She still prefers the slowing-to-a-halt crashes that we get everyday. She is coming around, but it's sure slow.

But for the gui, there are a few tweaks, if you are good at programming. Actually if you do a search on this site for KDE Tweaks you should find quite a few.

Other than that, I have stopped services I don't use at boot time, and switched to a Journaling FS (ext3 or ReiserFS) and those seemed to help quite a bit. Some of the programs I use I think are just written poorly and that's why they are slow; I don't complain though cause I can't even write a program to shutdown my computer with 1 key.

Konqueror is usually pretty good with my system. But I prefer Opera.

The best thing I have done to speed up my system is recompiled the kernel and "flushed out" all the things I don't need/use/want to make it boot my way. I don't know if this helped KDE's performance though.

BTW, what is SF or FM?

Have you tried KDE3? AFAIK it faster than previous releases. And maybe look at GNOME, too (but without Nautilus).

How do I get rid of Nautilus?

I had Mdk 8.2, I think that ir defaulted to ext2 on install. I like RH7.3 much better. I even did the full install (everything on the 3 cd's) and KDE3 is still at least 30-40% faster than XP. I dual boot because I have to do some work at home.

If you don't want to switch to RH, try an install with ext3.

SF and FM = Sourceforge and Freshmeat of course! :)

I am running etx3 and it's just still not matching performance i got with windows (speed that is). I've been trying to download RH7.3 cuase i've heard so much about it but it keeps failing. Was thinking about buying it.

for gui, i was looking into fluxbox but im still interested in somethign a tad more popular so updates and what not are more gaurenteed. Im not to much of a coder.... yet. :)


I'll continue doing expiriments on this thing to figure out why i feel it's laggy but in the mean time, What is _your_ favorite web browser, media player (both video and music. doesn't have to be the same player).

I use konqueror becuase it's RIGHT there on the kicker and it does a fairly decent job. Even in the windows days i wasn't diggin Netscape/Mozilla much.

Media players are not yet defined. Xine and Xvideo both lag and drop frames at full screen like a mofo. :(

Ben,

Change your distro!!!!

Try SuSE 8.0 with KDE 3.0

Works with no problems on K6 500 but with 256 meg RAM.

You should consider upgrading your RAM to 256 - it is relatively cheap and if you are multitasking especially with multimedia then this is probably where the problem lies.

However it may also be your installation and configuration.

There is simply no comparison between linux and windows in terms of resources - linux handles memory so much better than any M$ operating system.

The only thing windows is any use for is games.

Is there anywhere to download suse8 isos yet?

ISO Download
 

No, you have nevert been able to download the latest SuSE version from their website. Find someone who has it and get a copy - if not it's well worth the £40ish on a paid for version. The cheapest place I've found for it is http://www.dabs.com

If you're really stuck then I can mail you a copy if you send me postage.