advice for linux newbie

[WMD]

1.  Ubuntu Gnome runs circles around KDE.
2.  It's a bit faster overall.
3.  You can use the whole Debian repository, without having out-of-date/unstable base packages.

[Jenda]

Hmm. Thanks.

And one more thing, if you don't mind. What about Kubuntu?

[WMD]

I don't like KDE much anymore...3.4 might be ok if they sped it up like all the KDE fans were saying they did.  It's probably just as good as Gnome version, in respects to the system itself.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Linux + KDE is slower than  Windows XP.  

[solemnwarning]

Linux + KDE is slower than  Windows XP.  

Is that why my machine got faster after switch to linux + kde

[Orethrius]

Is that why my machine got faster after switch to linux + kde

You mean the difference is more significant than that between KDE and Fluxbox?  :p

[Jenda]

Linux + KDE is slower than  Windows XP.  

Impossible. My computer sped up when switching from W98. And don't try to tell me that 98 is slower than XP. You can't go negative...

[WMD]

And don't try to tell me that 98 is slower than XP.

It is, actually, provided that your machine can adequately handle XP.

And KDE is pretty slow indeed...especially versions 2.2 and 3.1.  Things have gotten better since, the biggest jump was 3.1 to 3.2.  But, I've tried 3.3 on a P3/650 with 448MB RAM, and it was still kinda sluggish.

[Jenda]

Aight, good enough, I'm a Gnome guy now... as soon as get back home to my own computer, that is... Geez I hate XP...

Thanks, ppl.

[choasforages]

ahem, go buy a book on linux, best advice i can think of. its what i did when i chucked windows completly several years ago. not to mention having a bit of modavation when trying something new.
and for the record, kde is not only faster then gnome, but more intagrated in a good way. it is completely network transparent, wheris the only networking i see in gnome is corba...and thats so it can talk to itself.

[toadlife]

It is, actually, provided that your machine can adequately handle XP.

XP can be certainly be faster. Tuning the settings for 'best performance' can even make a low memory (128) system run XP faster than 9x.

And KDE is pretty slow indeed...especially versions 2.2 and 3.1. Things have gotten better since, the biggest jump was 3.1 to 3.2. But, I've tried 3.3 on a P3/650 with 448MB RAM, and it was still kinda sluggish.

I'm just compiled KDE 3.4 and I think it's MUCH better than 3.3 - it does seem a little bit snappier. One thing is for sure though, KDE 3.4 takes up way more memory by default than Windows XP. Right now, I am booted to FreeBSD 5.4-Stable with KDE 3.4 on Xorg, with Firefox running and there is 300MB memory in use. Xorg alone uses 150MB of memory. I can't recall exact numbers right now (it's been a few days since I booted to XP, and I don't want to bother right now), but on XP, when I have Firefox open I'll only be using around 140-180MB of memory.

[toadlife]

Jenda - your little icon says "Chances are your Operating system sucks". I take offense to that!

[Aloone_Jonez]

I'm just compiled KDE 3.4 and I think it's MUCH better than 3.3 - it does seem a little bit snappier. One thing is for sure though, KDE 3.4 takes up way more memory by default than Windows XP. Right now, I am booted to FreeBSD 5.4-Stable with KDE 3.4 on Xorg, with Firefox running and there is 300MB memory in use. Xorg alone uses 150MB of memory. I can't recall exact numbers right now (it's been a few days since I booted to XP, and I don't want to bother right now), but on XP, when I have Firefox open I'll only be using around 140-180MB of memory.

This is very interesting, XP requires 64MB of RAM, yet I haven't seen it run on any less than 128MB but it runs well on 128MB and the speed is acceptable. Knoppix can run a GUI with KDE form a CD on 96MB of RAM without using a swap partition and I very much doubt that XP can do this. I bet if you installed Knoppix on a 128MB machine and used a swap partition it would be much faster than XP on the same hardware. Linux's performance depends a lot on how the kernel is compiled and how it's configured, ie which distribution you use. If you use something like Fedora Core, Mandrake, Linspire etc. Then it will be slower than Windows especially if you use the brain dead default configuration. Vector Linux will run well on than 32MB (it uses XFCE instead of KDE) and it flies on 256MB. I'm at work at the moment when I get home I'll tell you how much memory Vector Linux uses on my PC.

I fucking hate bloatware and I think some Linux distros are begining to become bloated. Most people I know who aren't computer geeks have less than 256MB of RAM and there are still new PCs on sale in the UK with 256MB of RAM, and this is way more than you need for most applications, I was happy with 32MB of ram untill I needed to buy a new PC last year because I fucked the old one up.  If you want to run a GUI I don't think Windows is bloated but it is in the respect that it forces you to waste resources on a GUI even if you don't need it.

[Jenda]

Jenda - your little icon says "Chances are your Operating system sucks". I take offense to that!

Sorry. Didn't realize that on the Microsuck.com forum, the chances are in fact quite low . Generally, it's unfortunately true, though.

[Lord C]

Sorry. Didn't realize that on the Microsuck.com forum, the chances are in fact quite low . Generally, it's unfortunately true, though.

It detects ip/proxy and browser, shame it doesn't detect OS too - then it could give an appropriate comment.