I was wondering if I could get a little help here. I currently run a dual boot system: RH8 & W2k. From what I've seen so far, W2k is equally as fast as RH8 if not faster. I know this shouldn't be the case, but I have no idea how to speed up RH8, or maybe it is just X that is slow.

I constantly hear rants and raves of how fast Linux is compared to Windows, but no love here. At this point, I'm wondering if I should keep Windows. Any help would be great. Here's what I'm running:

Fujitsu P-2040 Laptop
- Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 800Mhz
- 384mg RAM
- 60 gig H.D.
- RH8 - W2k
- ATI Rage Mobility - 4mg

Ahh, the ATI Rage mobility is the bottle neck, I think, since 4Meg is a pretty small amount of video RAM (unless main RAM is being shared in some way). Even so, shared RAM is slower, but maybe not noticable provided there is a lot of it.

BTW, the claim that linux is "faster" is, in general, false. What linux provides over and against windows is security (though win2k can be pretty secure), stability (though win2k can be pretty stable), open source development (though win2k is open sourced...NOT!), and did I mention cost?

Cheers--
Charles

Shut down unneeded services.
recompile your kernel.
Get an official driver for your video card.

Shuting down unneeded services is the most important.

Search the forums if you need more info on it.


Also, what Desktop Environment/Window Manager are you using? KDE and GNOME are very bloated, and using a lighter WM or DE will speed you up bigtime.

I like XFCE4. its light weight, but doesnt skimp on features: xfce.org

Other popular ones include:
Enlightenment - enlightenment.org
Window Maker - windowmaker.org
Fluxbox - fluxbox.org