Arch Linux

ataylor

Member

Registered: 2008-04-10

Posts: 54

Slow compared to Windows?

While I really enjoy using Linux, one thing I've always noticed is that I can't seem to run as many applications simultaneously as I could in Windows, and that any of the window managers are much slower than Windows (for example, while I use Firefox, it can be choppy while scrolling down content heavy pages)

Is this down to my system itself? Its a Pentium 4 1.8ghz IBM ThinkPad T30, with 1GB of RAM and a 16mb Radeon 7500 graphics card. Or is there a way I can optimize this?

I'm currently using KDE (having used Gnome for a few years)

Thanks!

.:B:.

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2006-11-26

Posts: 5,819

Website

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

On Linux X is a process like any other more or less. On Windows, it's in the kernel.

---

Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy

kennae

Member

Registered: 2008-03-12

Posts: 17

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

I got the exact same problem with Firefox and choppy scrolling.
It has been there always with every version of firefox and every distro I've used
including Debian/Ubuntu/Suse/Arch for past few years. I've also tried Swiftfox without any help.
Always used 32bit distributions, but I don't think it makes any difference.

I'm currently using GTK applications with Awesome window manager, never tested with KDE.

I don't think it's my hardware since I got Intel Quadcore 6600@3.4Ghz, 4gb of ram and Nvidia 8800gts
graphic card.

Any magic tricks to do?

Last edited by kennae (2008-04-23 05:02:23)

setsuna

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2008-04-10

Posts: 30

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

Choppy scrolling in Firefox (even 3b5) is "normal", at least for me (I didn't find a solution yet, ). It's more prominent on "CSS heavy" sites.

My computer is a Intel Quadcore 6600@3.0Ghz, 2gb of ram and Nvidia 8400 GS.

A friend of mine has the same computer and is using Windows. Many applications works best under Linux (mysql and tomcat to name a few ones important for me)

Last edited by setsuna (2008-04-23 09:12:33)

grandmasterb

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-03-12

Posts: 26

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

i think Firefox just sucks;/ its very slow and eats lots of memory;/ in my opinion mozilla devs are focused more on windows version then linux, thats why its faster on windows and that really sucks. also it hangs very often usually on flash sites..

ybotspawn

Member

From: Oz

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 140

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

Folks I had this problem too.  The problem is firefox as it is a magnificent resource hog... BUT!

I did the following which really helped the problem:

1. Minimize if you're using compiz to rotate the cube
2. Configure firefox to use more of the system memory and delete history upon exit
3. Configured a couple other firefox settings to make it a little more 'lightweight'  I'll post these if anyones interested.  But my overall goal was to make it so Firefox used as few resources as possible. 

Not really fixes but they do aleviate the headaches alot.  If anyone is interested, ill post my firefox settings when I get home.

Matt

---

"As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway,
why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. "

oliwer

Member

From: Paris

Registered: 2007-06-30

Posts: 153

Website

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

For the 2.0 releases, don't use Firefox on Linux. Use Swiftfox ! It's in the AUR.

---

⇨PKGBUILDs

ybotspawn

Member

From: Oz

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 140

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

Noted and thanks!

---

"As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway,
why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. "

kennae

Member

Registered: 2008-03-12

Posts: 17

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

Well, as I said, I've tested Swiftfox and fasterfox and all that I can think of, and it really can't be that it's just "heavy" with computer like this. There is something really wrong in the code. I'm using the FF 3b5, not 2.x version. And I don't got anything like Compiz even installed + I don't let firefox save any form data/history. Everything is cleared on exit.

Still same choppyness.

Redroar

Member

Registered: 2008-03-17

Posts: 200

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

Perhaps try Kazehakase? FF is a real resource hog, no doubt about it.

OP should use Konqueror if he's in KDE.

edit: Typo

Last edited by Redroar (2008-04-23 16:01:28)

---

Stop looking at my signature. It betrays your nature.

fiod

Member

Registered: 2007-04-02

Posts: 205

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

A "magic trick" I learned from Shining which will speed up your firefox considerably:

Add this to your graphics card section in xorg.conf:

Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"

You won't believe the difference..

See this post for details:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 19#p335219

Last edited by fiod (2008-04-23 16:22:48)

japetto

Member

From: Chicago, IL US

Registered: 2006-07-02

Posts: 183

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

I have had no real issues with FF on Arch (or any other distro) at all.

*knocks on wood*

But at work using a MB Pro / OS 10.5 FF crashes all the time.

Last edited by japetto (2008-04-23 16:44:23)

finferflu

Forum Fellow

From: Manchester, UK

Registered: 2007-06-21

Posts: 1,899

Website

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

That's strange, when I used FF2, I used to complain a lot, and indeed, I had even ditched it in favor of Opera. When I tried FFb3 I was able to ditch Opera, because I could see a lot of improvements, and FFb3 really feels much lighter, almost as light as Opera.

---

Have you Syued today?
Free music for free people! | Earthlings

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- A. de Saint-Exupery

SpookyET

Member

Registered: 2008-01-27

Posts: 410

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

If you are using an ATI card and compiz fusion, scrolling will be slow in all apps, but especially firefox. This only happens with the catalyst driver.

ybotspawn

Member

From: Oz

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 140

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

oooo i like the exa modification... gonna have to give that a go tonight!

---

"As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway,
why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. "

setsuna

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2008-04-10

Posts: 30

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

A "magic trick" I learned from Shining which will speed up your firefox considerably:

Add this to your graphics card section in xorg.conf:

Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"

You won't believe the difference..

See this post for details:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 19#p335219

That post regards an Intel chip. Does it work for nvidia drivers?

ataylor

Member

Registered: 2008-04-10

Posts: 54

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

There was I thinking I was the only one. Konqueror is much faster, as is Opera. Guess I'll just have to swap over...

Its not just Firefox though, annoyingly. Just seems like it can't run that many applications at the same time... switch to a different window manager like Fluxbox perhaps? KDEmod *seems* to be fast for general tasks, just not multiple applications...

adekoba

Member

Registered: 2007-07-10

Posts: 128

Website

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

i've found it to be the opposite: I can run many more programs in linux than windows and they seem, for the most part, faster. Window's gui might be faster, but that is only because it is in the kernel.

---

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Kknd

Member

From: Brazil, Santa Catarina

Registered: 2007-08-15

Posts: 100

Website

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

Im counting on Epiphany + Webkit! Quite unstable now, but a lot better than Firefox 2

grandmasterb

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-03-12

Posts: 26

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

@fiod: thanks for the tip:) firefox works much better now:) but still.. for me its too slow:p
i think Kazehakase/Epiphany and Konqueror are better solution. Don't get me wrong, i like FF
but its toooooooooo slow and eats to much resources;/
Konqueror is very good and fast browser but since last update flash doesn't work;/ thats why i use both FF2 and Konqueror.

About linux speed... on my computer KDE is bit slower then win XP but i can run more programs at the same time.
Xfce4 is much faster than KDEmod and win XP. im thinking to swich to Fluxbox and xfce4 apps if KDE4 won't be much faster than KDE 3.5

ps. sorry for my english

TheBodziO

Member

From: Dukla, Poland

Registered: 2006-07-28

Posts: 230

Website

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

Im counting on Epiphany + Webkit! Quite unstable now, but a lot better than Firefox 2

I'm looking forward to use it too!

---

It's not the best thing when they call you a "member" you know…

MetalRandomist

Member

Registered: 2007-08-16

Posts: 30

Re: Slow compared to Windows?

Firefox, for me only uses between 15 and 50 megabytes of RAM at any given moment, even after hours of usage.

Try recompiling it with "-Os" instead of "-O2", set "browser.cache.memory.capacity" to 32768 or  even 16384, "browser.session.max_entries" to 10, "browser.session.max_total_viewers" to 4, or zero if you don't mind Forward and Back taking a little longer, and "network.prefetch-next" to false.

Last edited by MetalRandomist (2008-04-24 21:12:54)