My laptop is too slow for RH 9.0
 

I have installed RH 9.0 on my laptop and has been using it for some time but I am getting frustrated with the time it takes to launch any application, particularly openoffice and even Netscape. My laptop cofiguration is P2 400 Mhz processor, 128MB RAM and 6 gb hdd.
Can anybody advise me as to which version of linux would run fine with this config. Is it advisable to switch to RH 8.0 or 7.0 to gain speed? Is it advisable to switch at all? Because I spent more than 10 days setting up all the hardwares, softwares and plugins.

Any advise is greatly welcome.
Thanks

I have the same problem.. 1.8Ghz, 250 MB RAM. :-(

You have a 400mhz Pentium...Upgrade your computer if you want anything to run fast...

if you're not newbie - get vector linux - it's the best small linux (and very powerfull)
for a newbie, i'd suggest libranet

martina, i didn't quite understand your reply - i have 1.8 GHz with 256MB RAM, and run win98se + mdk9.1 (which is quite similar to RedHat) and have no problems of this kind...
i find my machine VERY fast!!!
if you HAVE these problems, maybe there's some other reason for that - your hardware should be powerful enough

2 Nachos:

KDE is very, very slow. GNOME is a little bit faster, but still slow (compared to Win XP) . Maybe new kernel would help..?

As my main computer I have a 366MHz IBM Thinkpad with 192MB RAM. Too slow to use with Linux? Nope. A little rusty when it comes to encoding mp3's using lame with the --alt-preset standard switch? Yeah.

Do *NOT* use heavy-weight desktop environments like KDE and Gnome. Both are slow even on a recent midrange desktop computer. Use something lighter, like Fluxbox. Works a treat.

hw

2 hw-tph

Thanks a lot, I'll try it.

2 martina:
i have kernel 2.4.21 ; my 500MB-swap memory is almost always completely free - how much swap do you have?
KDE and GNOME are heavyweight, but NOT for that kind of computer - i'm using KDE - it's EXTREMLY fast (complete boot ~1min, mozilla window ~4sec)

My laptop is not upgradable, particularly the processor is glued on the mother board (vaio f360) :( Hey Nechos, are there sufficient software packages arround for vector and libranet? I am a programmer and need glade, java, gcc and some other stuffs like openoffice, Evolution, gaim, mplayer.


2 hw-tph

Can I install Fluxbox in RH 9.0 and get rid of KDE? But there is no Fluxbox in the redhat distribution. And what is lame? is it a linux version or just a package

Thanks a lot

libranet has everything, you shouldn't worry about it - it's got Fluxbox, too...
vector is based on slack, and on their site it says: Full development suite with most common libraries, compilers and related tools.
Gcc updated to version 3.2.2.
so,...

Yes, you can. Visit Fluxbox homepage, there is the source, there is and the docs. I used fluxbox before 2 months on 700mhz PCU, 96 SDRAM and 4MB video. It's wonderful window manager

I love it

Thanks for the Fluxbox! I am going to try it. Should I use "./configure --enable-kde" option as I have currently KDE running and if I like it, I am going to get rid of KDE as my main concern is speed.

I have never used Fluxbox with KDE, but I guess it won't hurt to enable the support for it. :)

Lame is an mp3 encoder, and very slow when you use the --alt-preset standard switch...but that's what you have to do if you want the best size vs quality performance. I know this is off topic, I only referred to it for the sake of getting my point across.

I too use Linux for programming. If you have any problems installing Java, search these forums! The question comes up once a day. :)

hw