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.

Windows | Gaming | new Idea
 

Since I've heard so much about windows and gaming. I was wondering how many of you are developers? I have been working on a story/3D data for a riven like game for about 5 years (on and off, whenever i feel inspiration to create more for it) but after seeing all the clones (as far as style goes) i lost motivation to release it as a game and just keep it as a personal immersive enviorment for myself.

Then I was thinking... NONE of these games are GPL... and this is not so much a game either, gets kidna complicated (for all the right reasons). Linux and the power of GPL motivated me enough to get back into it but I would definetly need help creating it. My coding skills sux0r.

Would anyone be interested in more info? I could post a thread dedicated to this project.

I call it Kilimatra.



Ben.

slackware is something worth trying.
as for windows manager, check out: http://www.windowmaker.org

I use a bit of an older graphics card and it turned out to be a known issue that using 24bit mode is as slow as molasses. So I use 16bit and it goes as fast as it ought to no matter how high the screen resolution is set. By the way it's an I740 chip on the graphics card.
Maybe a search on www.google.com/linux with some of the hardware you use might turn up a few tweaks here and there.

Interesting idea on the game though. Would be a waste if you didn't do anything with those 5 years of work. I don't really play games a lot but I enjoy writing software. I don't have heaploads of time but if you start putting something together then I'd be glad to help out in maybe someway or another. Never done any GPL programming projects yet. But I've been kinda looking around for a fun project to contribute in.

A basic introduction to the project can be found here:

www.teov.org/kilimatra/

I will make a post (and contact you and anyone else that is interested via email) about the basics and first steps needed to be taken. Im not much of a game player aswell BUT this isn't so much a game, as it is a immersive enviorment to 'escape' to. more on this later. :)

I'll scan in some drawings, render out some examples, tpye out some flow charts, etc to give you a good understanding on what the project actaully is. I think it'd be pretty simple as far as coding goes.

Ben.

Yeah from what I read on the issue of performance, I found out that KDE + Gnome are memory guzzlers, but I still love my KDE ;)

Yeah about the project, I would love to join, but I ain't that good of a programmer though. Only had some Basic C++, but I am trying to learn more.

Also what are you going to use for the engine? Are you thinking of making one from scratch, or you going to use some of the many engines that are available on SourceForge?

One thing though, I ain't sure how much time I can spend on coding per day, since I am still in University, and got to do homework, exams, and so on.

Hoping to hear from you soon, with the details of your project.

Gnome and KDE are *slow* environments by Linux standards,, but if your *sound* is stuttering, there is something very wrong. The only time I had a problem like this with linux was because the distro installed some bizare and incorrect network settings that caused the whole OS to lag. I'm sorry that I can't be more specific :(

Dual boot
 

There are still few things that is very difficult in linux. So its better if you go in for a dual boot but i prefer linux only. It getting better day by day. and it wont be long before linux beats windows in the desktop market

Talking about performance, here is what I can tell you:

(I'm a newcomer to Linux SuSE, been with Windows 8 years.
My specs: P3 600, 256 Ram, ATI 64 Ram)
Running KD3 16-bit color, 1024 resolution.
I decided to "benchmark" SuSE yesterday:

1. I opened FOUR desktops, and a total of 11 applications were running at the same time (3 full word processors, 4 consoles, MP3 running, System Guard, a solitaire game, etc.)
2. Not a glitch in my music as I moved from one desktop to another. In fact, not a glitch in anything else.
3. In Windows, just play your MP3 and dial a line. You immediately get a hang-up with your music (and they claim it is multitasking!)
4. Result? Were it not that I can't, for the moment, setup my winmodem (will have to buy a real external one), I would have blasted Windows from my system.
5. I'm definitely in LOVE with Linux and with its performance!