[TriLUG] My slow linux machine

[James McDermott]

Hello,

This is my 1st ever post and I am a newbe.

I am running RedHat 9 on a Micron Millennia Mme box that has a 233 Mhz 
procesor, 256 MB RAM (Max Allowed), and an IBM 6.4 GB Ultra DMA /33 IDE 
hard drive. The machine only has linux installed (no windows, no dual 
boot).

When I start an application, it takes considerable time to load the 
application. Mozilla(1.2.1) takes about 8 seconds, GIMP(1.2.5) takes 
about 15 seconds, OpenOfficeWriter takes about 25 seconds. The system 
monitor is showing that memory is using about 246MB out of 250MB and 
swap is using 29MB out of 510MB.

I do see where my CPU utilization goes to 100% while an application is 
being started or while it is shutting down.

After Mozilla, OpenOffice writer, GIMP etc. are open, the response times 
are not fast, but if you have some patience, the response times are 
marginally acceptable. I can have many applications open and not exceed 
my available RAM or use any significant SWAP.

I think that my problem is that I am a slow linux machine because I am 
CPU bound?

What is the recommended CPU speed to get decent performance? I would 
like to see OpenOffice come up in less than about 5 seconds.

Thanks, Jim McDermott