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Need input on various software for Linux.

R

RyanGreener

Senior member
Hi, I want to try out Linux one more time on this netbook, but this time I'm aiming for the absolute FASTEST software. I don't care if it consumes a lot of RAM, but I just want it to be fast. Here's the types I'm looking for, and my guesses too (if I have any).

Browser: Chromium
General Media Player: VLC
Word Processor: Abiword
PDF Reader: ?
etc. (think up any other typical netbook software people use)

I made this topic because people always talk about applications and stuff being "light" in the sense that they consume minimal hard drive space/minimal RAM, but that honestly doesn't bother me. I just want an application that is just fast, even if it takes up a lot of RAM/HD resources. Obviously if it is a CPU hog that's not good though...sooo, any suggestions, or are mine alright?
 
The window manager (or Desktop if you will), makes a huge difference.
I haven't done a head to head shootout, but Ubuntu makes it easy to boot into
Gnome (the default), KDE (Kubuntu), or XFCE (Xubuntu).
I'm running Xubuntu because I think it runs faster and lighter than the other 2 WMS.
 
Out of all those applications listed none of them really take any power to run except for VLC, and that entirely depends on what you're trying to play.

If you want your desktop to seem 'faster', get a new shiny SSD for your boot and root and make sure you've got solid support for your Video card so you can take advantage of any/all hardware acceleration it can provide you.
 
Crusty said:
Out of all those applications listed none of them really take any power to run except for VLC, and that entirely depends on what you're trying to play.

If you want your desktop to seem 'faster', get a new shiny SSD for your boot and root and make sure you've got solid support for your Video card so you can take advantage of any/all hardware acceleration it can provide you.
Click to expand...

I'm using an MSI U120. Intel Atom 1.6 GHZ, Intel GMA 950 Integrated Graphics. What do you think is the best for playing music/video? Or should I use two seperate applications?
 
I'm not real fond of VLC either.
Not real sure why, except I like other audio players better, and I have no problems with MPlayer or GXine for video.

I was playing some MP3s last night, and was very pleased with the lightweight and minimal gui of alsaplayer. Not sure it has playlist support, but very light.
 
joetekubi said:
I have no problems with MPlayer[...]
Click to expand...
The only 'problem' I have with MPlayer is...

Google Chrome (browser) doesn't support it yet. A bug in Chrome is the 'problem', not MPlayer, so the G devs blacklisted MPlayer, until they can stomp the Chrome bug. In the meantime, I'm using Firefox for non-Flash steaming audio/video.

The thing I have a problem with is Totem (default player on many distros).

I purge Totem from my Linux installs and use MPlayer instead. 100% improvement, IMHO!

Hrm...

I just ran across this article: 13 First steps after installing ubuntu

Looks pretty good! Some of this stuff, I already do. Some of it, I never thought about.

It's got some nice sections on speeding up Ubu and clearing out the cruft...
 
joetekubi said:
Link is broken[...]

I don't agree with the author on Compiz effects[...]
Click to expand...
Hrm...

Both of the links work for me, but they are different authors/articles. :\

13things2do.png
 
I'd recommend Fluxbox over xfce, and xfce over gnome or kde if you want quicker response.

Also, the reason why memory footprint is important is that the more memory something takes up, the more that needs to be read from dusk and written to memory to start the program .... thus ... something with a 1mb memory footprint will almost always start quicker than something with 100mb memory footprint ... assuming no trickery/encoding/compression etc is done to slow it down.


Note: I don't own a netbook, but I did run linux and openBSD on my old 450mhz/192mb ram laptop for ages .... Nowadays I have a much faster p4 with 1gb as well as my dual and quad core desktops ....
 
BurnItDwn said:
I'd recommend Fluxbox over xfce, and xfce over gnome or kde if you want quicker response.

Also, the reason why memory footprint is important is that the more memory something takes up, the more that needs to be read from dusk and written to memory to start the program .... thus ... something with a 1mb memory footprint will almost always start quicker than something with 100mb memory footprint ... assuming no trickery/encoding/compression etc is done to slow it down.


Note: I don't own a netbook, but I did run linux and openBSD on my old 450mhz/192mb ram laptop for ages .... Nowadays I have a much faster p4 with 1gb as well as my dual and quad core desktops ....
Click to expand...

That's a backwards way of using the memory footprint. If you are concerned about load time due to needing to read files off of the disk then you need to measure the size of the files on disk and compare them, not the amount of memory the program uses while it is running.

In practice though you would simply just time the startup of each application individually as there are any number of things that could slow down an application startup. Anything from slow DNS queries to splash screens for licensing requirements to simply shitty code.
 
Crusty said:
That's a backwards way of using the memory footprint. If you are concerned about load time due to needing to read files off of the disk then you need to measure the size of the files on disk and compare them, not the amount of memory the program uses while it is running.

In practice though you would simply just time the startup of each application individually as there are any number of things that could slow down an application startup. Anything from slow DNS queries to splash screens for licensing requirements to simply shitty code.
Click to expand...

Yea ... backwards ..and doesn't really apply 100% ...
But, without knowing how big of an actual memory footprint something is, you can somewhat guestimate based upon package size ....
Sorta a loose, inaccurate, estimation 🙂
 
azemsiB said:
Word Processor: Abiword
Click to expand...

Admittedly, this happened a few years ago, while I was working on my master's thesis, but AbiWord died on me one day and took a few pages with it (and, as I recall, the autosave feature.... didn't). At the time, I wasn't trying to use anything fancy -- no tables or formatting -- just using it as a text editor.**

Anyway, I may have an irrational bias against it because of that experience, but I tend to like using plain text editors now (they're also faster!) However, if you're just looking for a lightweight Word replacement, AbiWord may be your best bet -- just make sure you save often!

**AbiWord programmers, if your code stability is much better now, I'm sorry for impugning your skill!
 
After years of using Linux, I recommend the following if you want speed or using the least amount of resources.

Desktop/Window Manager: Xfce
Media Player: Mplayer and SMplayer for front-end
Web Browser: Opera (static linked) or Epiphany
File Manager: Thunar
Office suite: SoftMaker Office
Word Processor: all of them are too slow including Abiword
Spreadsheet: Gnumeric
Database: Kexi
Music Player: Audacious
CD/DVD Burning: K3B or Brasero (I prefer K3B)
Image Editing: GIMP or Xara
Sound Recorder: Audacity
Power Management: Granola
PDF or Postscript Viewer: evince
Music CD Ripper: Grip or Asunder
Filesystem: EXT4
HD Playback: VA-API/VDPAU in Mplayer
Media Player Plug-in: Gecko mediaplayer
Video Capture: mencoder
FTP client: Filezilla

Flash files playing in either the Adobe Flash plug-in or GNU gnash uses a lot of resources. I did not put this plug-in into the list, so you have to make the decision to add or to not add it. If you are going to add it, include flashblock extension.

I have not yet tried Granola, but if the developers are right that it is easy and automatic, I do not see why it should not be on the list. Usually, you have to tweak the ondemand governor, a cpufreq power management option built into the kernel, on your work load. Granola will track your computer usage and automatically adjusts ondemand options. It may screw up with laptop-tools. Setup laptop-tools to only control the hard drive power management.

I have tried SoftMaker Office and it is fast. It is a commercial program. It is the best Office suite for Linux. OpenOffice developers should be ashame of themselves if they used SoftMaker Office. You get Microsoft Office like features at a fraction of the price. I do not see why people are still using OpenOffice when it just sucks for achieving its all time goal.

I did not include a JAVA VM in the list because there are tons out there. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages. I use the regular Sun Oracle JAVA VM. Depending what options that are used to run it and how it the program is written, it can be just as fast and in some cases faster.

Do not use Compiz or any eye candy if you want speed. A nVidia graphics card is the only way to go if you want speed. It has great graphics support and they now include VDPAU to help with video playback of certain codecs. VDPAU is capable of decoding MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV3/9, H.264, VC, so most of the CPU intensive codecs.

If your computer still is still slow, trying tuning it with sysctl. I suggest read the following to start tweaking with sysctl.

http://rudd-o.com/en/linux-and-free...land-why-linux-feels-slow-and-how-to-fix-that
 
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