Speed

[Nate]

I have come to the realization my computer is running really slow.  I know its an old machine(633mHz, 128mb RAM) but I have one app open(azureus) and it runs like there are 20.  Also im downloading at >10kb/s.  I did some reading and i was told to use the 686 kernal instead of the 386 kernal.  Any suggestions?

[Newby]

Uhm, the reason Azureus runs slowly is because it's Java.

Nothing to do with your kernel I'd guess. Though you could hack your kernel in some nifty way I bet.

[Nate]

no it is that slow for everything.  I was using that as an example.

[Newby]

no it is that slow for everything.  I was using that as an example.

You picked a terrible example.

Yeah, try recompiling your kernel. See if that'll help.

Also, check your process list (try ps aux) and see what's eating all of your CPU/RAM.

[iago]

Your main problem is lack of RAM.  X-windows uses a lot of ram, and so does Firefox, OpenOffice, Azureus, and just about any other major X program.  I highly recommend having at least 256 or 512mb of ram.  Your CPU speed, on the other hand, is more than enough. 

Additionally, which windowing environment are you using?  KDE and Gnome are really big whores in terms of the amount of CPU/RAM they use.  If you are using KDE or Gnome, I suggest trying out Xfce.  It's also pretty and has nice features, but it is also light-weight. 

Hope that helps.

[igimo1]

I wouldn't use Azeurus on an old machine like that; its java, and bloated with features you'll probably never use. Try using uTorrent instead, its very RAM and CPU un-intensive.

[Nate]

The other thing is, I put the machine outside the router firewall(bad idea i know) but firestarter(bad idea i know) blocks a connection about every 5 secs, is that normal or bad?

[Newby]

Download µTorrent now - It's Free.
For Windows 95 (Winsock2), 98/ME, NT/2000, XP and above.

Unix/Linux Discussion
This board is for anything pertaining to the *nix platform.

Thanks Topaz.

What is Firestarter?

[Nate]

Some crappy *nix firewall

[Joe]

I wouldn't use Azeurus on an old machine like that; its java, and bloated with features you'll probably never use. Try using uTorrent instead, its very RAM and CPU un-intensive.

You, being a Window's user, blame Java for being slow. Linux makes incredible use of CPU usage, to the point where it can run easily on a 266MHz processor. That gives Java more than enough cycles to run in, but if it keeps using virtual memory, it'll have to read/write to/from the harddrive each time it tries to do something, which is not fun.

[iago]

I wouldn't use Azeurus on an old machine like that; its java, and bloated with features you'll probably never use. Try using uTorrent instead, its very RAM and CPU un-intensive.

You, being a Window's user, blame Java for being slow. Linux makes incredible use of CPU usage, to the point where it can run easily on a 266MHz processor. That gives Java more than enough cycles to run in, but if it keeps using virtual memory, it'll have to read/write to/from the harddrive each time it tries to do something, which is not fun.

I agree, for the most part.   But for the record, I wouldn't recommend running Java on a 266MHz processor no matter what OS you're running.