Oh where to weigh in. How about with my laptop. I currently have a p266 laptop. I recently dropped in an extra 64mb or ram (best $25 I've spent lately) but before that it just had 32mb or RAM. Running netscape 4.7 on this machine was rather painful. (I use blackbox as a window manager) I tried out Opera on the thing and it ran wonderfully with just 32mb of ram. Now that I have 96mb or ram in the thing I still run blackbox as the WM and Opera as the browser. Leaves me enough memory/processor time to do other stuff. I would never consider running KDE or GNOME on this machine. I know from experience that they are just too big. A 3000Mhz with 128mb of RAM is a good machine for KDE or GNOME. Until then, try other window managers. IceWM is really nice for Windows converts, and is fast/lightweight, etc. Window Maker takes some getting used to, but it's nice. FVWM2 is...well...FVWM2. It works. I never got into configuring it though. QVWM is another Windows like thing. The single config file is it's big advantage. OK, this topic has been beaten to death... Andrew S. Zbikowski | http://www.ringworld.org "We can learn much more from wise words, little from wisecracks and less from wise guys." --William Arthur Ward On Fri, 14 Sep 2001, James Spinti wrote: > Unfortunately, I have to agree on the whole. I have several machines at > home. Some Win9x, one NT4, a dual boot Linux/Win9x and a RH 6.2 machine. I > have tried to get my kids to use Linux for web stuff, etc. They are truly > impressed when they see me running Linux with the multiple windows with > VMware, KMail, Opera, etc. and love the looks of KDE 2. But, once they get > it going and log in, they don't know what to do. Of course, in all > fairness, they avoid the NT machine too, since it requires a C-A-D to log > on. > > If there were a distribution that allowed you to set up an automatic login > (with user privileges) with decent fonts and Opera (personal favorite), > KMail, KOffice and various plugins installed, I would push Linux much harder > to my non-computer literate friends :( > > There was talk of creating such a distro on the list a while back, anybody > doing anything? I would be willing to help, but my knowledge is pretty > limited when it comes to that kind of thing. Or, is there already one out > there that does this? Redmond Linux is supposed to be something like this, > but it is not stable enough to try yet. > > Thanks, > > James Spinti > jspinti at dartdist.com > 952-368-3278 x396 > fax 952-368-3255 > > |-----Original Message----- > |From: tclug-list-admin at mn-linux.org > |[mailto:tclug-list-admin at mn-linux.org]On Behalf Of Steve Grobe > |Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 9:41 AM > |To: 'tclug-list at mn-linux.org' > |Subject: RE: [TCLUG] Linux vrs Windows speed - What gives? > | > | > |Mark, > | > |I know this is gonna get me trouble but here goes.. > | > |As much as I hate to admit it, for Joe six pack Linux just isn't there yet. > |I run Windows 2k here at work but at home I run Linux about 95% of the time > |and love it. My brother after dealing with windows crashing all the time > |decided to try linux. I tried to talk him into a dual boot but he > |would not > |even consider it so I gave him my Mandrake 8 disks and told him to have at > |it. He got it installed on his own (for the most part) and got > |the stuff he > |used most working and loved it. For about two days, until he had > |to install > |real player and a couple of other apps he wanted to try. Most people don't > |want to work any harder than point and click to get stuff to work. In > |another year or two this will change but for now Linux just isn't ready for > |the average home user, corporate user may be a different story but I kinda > |doubt that too. > | > |To make an already long and boring post a little shorter, my brother has > |gone back to using windows. > | > | > | > |-----Original Message----- > |From: Mark Browne [mailto:markbrowne at mn.mediaone.net] > |Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 9:01 AM > |To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org > |Subject: Re: [TCLUG] Linux vrs Windows speed - What gives? > | > | > |Sorry about that. > |I even re-read before posting and missed the size. I have a 200mb > |swap on my > |test machine - not 20. > | > |The reason I am trying to learn Linux is to see if I want to risk my GURU > |reputation to recommend it at work and for my friends. > |I do NOT want to spend my life running around cobbling up other peoples > |systems. > |I want a distro I can recommend right out of the box - that will do what > |"average" folks do. > |(surfing, e-mail, word processing) > | > |I gave the example of surfing the web because it is such a common task. > |Other areas of perceived slow speed are slow boot-ups and time to > |spawn new > |X window apps. > | > |These are apples to apples kind of comparisons. > |Windows does a windowing system and I am using the tools installed by > |default. > |I expect my test distribution to work the same way. > |Having to cherry pick and tune apps does not cut it. > | > |OK, X-windows is a resource pig. > |What else am I going to do to run a GUI on Linux? > |(see comment on running out of the box above) > | > |I don't see a lot of difference using Gnome. > |I will not recommend FWM to newbies, even if faster. > |They will not feel that it is something better. > |I am not going to switch people over to a text based system, no mater how > |well it runs SAMBA or Apache. > | > |Despite the bashing and crashing - for a lot of the folks I > |support- windows > |does just install and work. > |The default apps and setting are pretty reasonable. > |Windows does a fair job of tying all the little bits together for a nice > |responsive system. > |Sure they cheat - they don't have to do a modular system - they don't have > |to. > | > |Does it really come down to admitting that windows is really better for > |Joe-six-pack consumer computers? > |I hope not. > | > |Mark Browne > | > | > |----- Original Message ----- > |From: "James Spinti" <jspinti at dart.dartdist.com> > |To: <tclug-list at mn-linux.org> > |Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 8:15 AM > |Subject: RE: [TCLUG] Linux vrs Windows speed - What gives? > | > | > |> Try Opera under Linux. It flies and doesn't crash the machine the way IE > |> does. > |> > |> Also, your swap is too small (windows dynamically manages swap, so it is > |> probably using 60-100 MB of swap, try system monitor to see). > |> > |> If you want to run X on that slow a machine, try a smaller > |window manager, > |> like fwm, etc. KDE is designed for faster machines. I don't run it on a > |> machine slower than 200 MHz. Anything slower, I run Linux without X and > |use > |> it for a server. I had a 486-100 under samba as my PDC until 2 months > |ago, > |> it would out perform a PII-233 with 4 times the RAM under NT. > |> > |> Thanks, > |> > |> James Spinti > |> jspinti at dartdist.com > |> 952-368-3278 x396 > |> fax 952-368-3255 > |> > |> | > |> |-----Original Message----- > |> |From: Mark Browne [mailto:markbrowne at mn.mediaone.net] > |> |Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 10:37 PM > |> |To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org > |> |Subject: [TCLUG] Linux vrs Windows speed - What gives? > |> | > |> | > |> |I am still geting used to Mandrake 8.0. > |> |My concern is that with a dual boot system Windows seems faster than > |Linux > |> |in KDE. > |> |Example: Explorer opening a web page 3x faster compared to KDE or > |netscape > |> |on same system. > |> |Is there some sort of speed tuning I should do? > |> |I am testing Linux primarily with a 133 MHz P1 with 64 mb with > |> |20mb of swap. > |> |Don't tell me to get a faster box - I have one. > |> |WIndows 98 runs OK with this hardware. > |> | > |> |I have tried several other distributions with much the same results. > |> |I fear that the claims of Linux speed in relation to Windoze may be just > |> |hype. > |> | > |> |Mark Browne > |> > |> _______________________________________________ > |> tclug-list mailing list > |> tclug-list at mn-linux.org > |> https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > | > |_______________________________________________ > |tclug-list mailing list > |tclug-list at mn-linux.org > |https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > |_______________________________________________ > |tclug-list mailing list > |tclug-list at mn-linux.org > |https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > | > > _______________________________________________ > tclug-list mailing list > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >