I recently migrated to Mepis (via couple of months of SuSe 10.0 use) from Windows 2000. Things I like about this distro beside the fact that it comes in only 1 CD are that I did NOT have to reinstall it two times (after failing to install display card 3D support correctly), spend days getting some features (mp3, avi etc.) to work properly and to install some basic security features like GuardDog or KlamAv.

However, what I've noticed is that the performance (browsing, switching between applications, starting up an application etc.) of out-of-the-box SuSe and Mepis is less (actions take much more time) than that of Windows 2000. Also some applications (AmaroK, Dictionary even Firefox if several instances are started in quick succession) tend to hang and ultimately crash relatively frequently (observed mostly in SuSe). What I would like to know:

- What ways exist to increase the performance (as I've defined above)?
- Can anything be done to the application crashes (this relates more to SuSe) on OS level, or are they merely application dependent?

Thanks!

My low-endish system: Mepis 6.0-rc2, KDE, GeForce2 MX 400 (64MB), 600MHz Celeron, 80GB hard disk, 512MB RAM

hi there

never really thought of any ways to speed up my mepis. yes you are right most linux
distros always seem slower then windows and apps take a wile to load. there are things you can do though but I have never tryed them. I was thinking the other day if I can get rid of that log-in-thing and get in to mepis quicker wonder how you could do that? but I dont know how to do that

do you think that mepis is quicker than SUSE or the other way around and if so by how much

I think mepis is quicker even that ubunut and kubuntu

see if quick boot is enabled in BIOS that may speed thing up perhaps

or perhaps a processor upgrade could help

The best way to speed up any distro is to shut down any running services that you don't actually need. Both Mepis and SuSE start quite a few services that most people don't use all of the time.

Every running service takes up some resources and the cumulative effect can slow your system response.

I find your comments very strange when contrasted with my experience. I have MEPIS 6.0 installed on 4 PCs that I uses regularly (AMD 3700+, 2.7ghz P4, AMD K6 1300mhz, and 650mhz P3 laptop). They all are dual boot. The AMD 3700+ boots MEPIS 6.0 and XP Pro, and the rest boot MEPIS 6.0, and W2K Pro. In all cases, MEPIS boots, launches, runs apps, and shuts down MUCH faster than its dual booting Windows counter-part. There is really no comparison. The P3 laptop was so slow with w2k pro, that it was rarely used. With MEPIS 6.0 it's very responsive, and the cpu speed is really not an issue.

If MEPIS wasn't significantly faster, out of the box, than windows, I wouldn't be using it.