Arch Linux

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Why so slow?

I just switched from Windows 32bit to arch64 thinking it would make things faster. I soon learned that besides the start-up time being the same, arch64 is overall twice as slow as Windows. Draging windows fast around in gnome makes a trail, delay when starting applications, firefox is crazy slow; if flash is in use the cpu is stuck on 100%. I think it's strange since gnome feels like a simpler desktop environment than Windows have so I thought it would be faster.

I tried ubuntu aswell witch is even slower so it can't be arch there is something wrong with. I'm not posting this to whine, I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong or are desktop environments just generally slower on linux? Should I perhaps try arch32?

I'm on a HP dv5000 laptop, 1gb ram, 2ghz AMD mobile turion64.

Noneus

Member

From: Munich

Registered: 2006-09-26

Posts: 118

Website

Re: Why so slow?

Well with flash in arch64 you need the newest flash 10 beta. Adobe added OpenGL rendering and that makes it way faster.

Well in GNOME I have no performance problems at all. (Btw: GNOME's desktop has more capabilities than Windows') Do the windows lag behind your mouse movement?

About firefox: I have firefox3. Again. Everything runs smooth.

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Re: Why so slow?

Yes when I drag windows around they can't redraw fast enough and leaves a trail. And say opening nautilus takes a lot longer than opening explorer in Windows.

Last edited by lemon (2008-06-21 13:30:13)

Mikko777

Member

From: Suomi, Finland

Registered: 2006-10-30

Posts: 837

Re: Why so slow?

I just switched from Windows 32bit to arch64 thinking it would make things faster. I soon learned that besides the start-up time being the same, arch64 is overall twice as slow as Windows. Draging windows fast around in gnome makes a trail, delay when starting applications, firefox is crazy slow; if flash is in use the cpu is stuck on 100%. I think it's strange since gnome feels like a simpler desktop environment than Windows have so I thought it would be faster.

I tried ubuntu aswell witch is even slower so it can't be arch there is something wrong with. I'm not posting this to whine, I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong or are desktop environments just generally slower on linux? Should I perhaps try arch32?

I'm on a HP dv5000 laptop, 1gb ram, 2ghz AMD mobile turion64.

Most of your problems sound like user related problems so:
Read the wiki, set hostnames, disable ipv6, use proprietary drivers etc...

Afaik Windows desktop will prolly always be faster, since in linux X is separate from kernel.
Altho you can try different DE's WM's since it will prolly speed things up, and there shouldn't be a huge difference anyways.

Boot time can prolly be tweaked to beat winxp depending on your hardware.

Flash like other proprietary software can and is faster in windows, blame adobe. Flash 10 is supposed to have hardware acceleration tho.

Firefox3 is fast / faster than windows.

Kde4 is faster here than Gnome (screen drawing wise)

Edit: oh yes application startup time is longer on first try, unless you use preload like windows does.

Last edited by Mikko777 (2008-06-21 13:31:46)

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Planet KDE | Opendesktop.org | Chakra Project

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Re: Why so slow?

Yes I've set the hostnames, disabled ipv6 and I only use proprietary drivers, I guess I will see how firefox3 is working when it gets packaged and take things from there..

JeremyTheWicked

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-05-23

Posts: 193

Re: Why so slow?

It looks like a problem with xorg.conf to me. I'm not an expert here but you might post it in case someone more experienced in this field finds something.

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arch(3) adj amused because you think you understand something better than other people ;P

Ub1476

Member

Registered: 2008-01-21

Posts: 69

Re: Why so slow?

You don't have the correct graphic drivers installed. What's your graphic card?

lspci | grep VGA

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Re: Why so slow?

You don't have the correct graphic drivers installed. What's your graphic card?

lspci | grep VGA

I do,

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955

I use the catalyst/fglrx driver with aticonfig xorg.conf.