[PLUG] Victor wants to have a better web surfing experience

Michael Ewan mhewan1 at comcast.net
Fri Jul 10 13:41:11 UTC 2009


Victor Soich wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have debian on my laptop and a comcast broadband connection.
>
> When I use a web browser called Epiphany and go to my gmail account
> and compose an email, the time it takes for the letters to appear on
> the screen as I type them is super slow.
>
> When I open a lot of tabs, i.e. web sites, my system goes so slow that
> I can no longer effectivly surf the Internet.
>
> How do I solve these two problems?
>
> Specs of my system:
>
> cat /proc/meminfo
> MemTotal:       183820 kB
>
> cat /proc/cpuinfo
> processor       : 0
> vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
> cpu family      : 6
> model           : 8
> model name      : Pentium III (Coppermine)
> stepping        : 1
> cpu MHz         : 498.170
> cache size      : 256 KB
>
> df -h /dev/hda1
> Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/hda1              37G  2.7G   32G   8% /
>
>
> I am using KDE.  It is what was automatically installed when I
> installed Debian.
> I believe I do not have the recommended amount of RAM to effectively
> use KDE, and
> that is affecting my typing in gmail and my overall web surfing experience.
>
> I think I need to install a different Window Manager and/or Desktop.
> I don't understand
> the difference between a Window Manager and a Desktop.  Can someone clarify?
>
> How do I install a different Window Manager and/or Desktop?
>
> Most importantly, can you please recommend a combination of Window
> Manager, Desktop, and Web Browser, given my computers modest specs,
> such that I can compose emails in gmail without the letters appearing
> so slow, and furthermore open a lot of tabs and surf the web
> effectively.
>
> Perhaps it is the case that I need to invest in new hardware, but I
> don't think so.  Linux is
> suppose to work on old stuff.  Perhaps I'm asking too much of Linux on
> my old laptop?
>
> I don't know.  I just know that I'm kind of miserable composing emails
> in gmail, and in surfing the net.
>
> Thank you for your consideration.
>
> Victor
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> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>
>   

You definitely need a new desktop that will be more memory friendly.  
The difference between the desktop and the window manager is mostly in 
programming libraries used.  The two main desktops are KDE and Gnome, 
both are very memory hungry.  A window manager runs on the desktop and 
provides the title bars and menus that you use to control the windows on 
the desktop. 

I was having the same kind of problems on a 256MB Intel P4 box and 
switched to xfce.  I get much better performance with xfce.  You should 
be able to apt-get xfce to install it then choose that from the login 
session manager.  You might also consider a new operation system such as 
DSL or Puppy Linux.  Both are very light weight and designed for small 
memory hardware. 





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