Linux Mint running very slow
Hi Experts,
I am running Linux Mint on a Sony Vaio and it is running very slow. It takes about 20 seconds for Firefox or Chrome to start. Is there an equivalent of Windows Task Manager so I can see if anything is using the CPU.
I am running Linux Mint on a Sony Vaio and it is running very slow. It takes about 20 seconds for Firefox or Chrome to start. Is there an equivalent of Windows Task Manager so I can see if anything is using the CPU.
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Rob
Could be hard drive, could be RAM could be Linux. Won't know until you can give us some specs the computer.
ASKER
tagit
Specs are:
Celeron M 1.4 GHz
1 GB RAM
150 GB HD
Specs are:
Celeron M 1.4 GHz
1 GB RAM
150 GB HD
Ok I see the 1gb ram and it will really make a difference to increase this.
How full is the hard drive?
Did you find the task manager?
How full is the hard drive?
Did you find the task manager?
This is the one being referenced
Check the "Resources" and "File Systems" tabs
I've just been running it as a virtual machine and I've got to day that it is incredibly slow compared with fedora. Get yourself Windows and you'll be much happier
Hello DColin
I know this question was closed a while ago. I read it as a "Related Solution" in the right-hand pane while looking at another question about why somebody's Windows PC was running slowly, and felt that I should comment on the final comment made by Rob (tagit):
"Get yourself Windows and you'll be much happier".
Out of the box any Windows version is slower than it should be because of all the eye candy. You will always notice increased performance after you disable all the fancy "transitional" effects such as fading or sliding open menus, combo boxes, and "animating" windows as you maximise or minimise them. There are also loads of other simple performance boosts like changing the default Windows Explorer view from Thumbnails to Details, and so on.
Linux is no different in this respect, and I would urge anybody reading this question to look for and disable as many of the fancy animations and transitional effects if they want things to run faster in general.
I say "in general" because, when people complain about their computer running slowly they are very often referring to their browser, and very rarely mention whether other applications seem to be dragging their heels as well.
There can be a lot of factors that slow down Internet browsing or launch time of a web browser, including the connection speed and the number of browser Add-Ons that are installed and have to be initialised as the browser loads. If applications such as Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, image editing software, etc, also seem to take an abnormally long time to load, and if you have temporarily disabled all add-ons for testing, then you can safely say "my computer is slow".
In the case of Linux you also have to remember that most distros are made available with different desktops. Linux Mint 16 (Petra) comes with Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, and Xfce Desktops. Some are more resource-hungry than others, and in this case the Xfce Desktop is probably the most lightweight but still well featured and user friendly.
I would always recommend that somebody trying out Linux should experiment with the different Desktops and disable all the superfluous eye candy before dismissing it. I don't think it is fair to simply say "Get yourself Windows and you'll be much happier".
I know this question was closed a while ago. I read it as a "Related Solution" in the right-hand pane while looking at another question about why somebody's Windows PC was running slowly, and felt that I should comment on the final comment made by Rob (tagit):
"Get yourself Windows and you'll be much happier".
Out of the box any Windows version is slower than it should be because of all the eye candy. You will always notice increased performance after you disable all the fancy "transitional" effects such as fading or sliding open menus, combo boxes, and "animating" windows as you maximise or minimise them. There are also loads of other simple performance boosts like changing the default Windows Explorer view from Thumbnails to Details, and so on.
Linux is no different in this respect, and I would urge anybody reading this question to look for and disable as many of the fancy animations and transitional effects if they want things to run faster in general.
I say "in general" because, when people complain about their computer running slowly they are very often referring to their browser, and very rarely mention whether other applications seem to be dragging their heels as well.
There can be a lot of factors that slow down Internet browsing or launch time of a web browser, including the connection speed and the number of browser Add-Ons that are installed and have to be initialised as the browser loads. If applications such as Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, image editing software, etc, also seem to take an abnormally long time to load, and if you have temporarily disabled all add-ons for testing, then you can safely say "my computer is slow".
In the case of Linux you also have to remember that most distros are made available with different desktops. Linux Mint 16 (Petra) comes with Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, and Xfce Desktops. Some are more resource-hungry than others, and in this case the Xfce Desktop is probably the most lightweight but still well featured and user friendly.
I would always recommend that somebody trying out Linux should experiment with the different Desktops and disable all the superfluous eye candy before dismissing it. I don't think it is fair to simply say "Get yourself Windows and you'll be much happier".