Can somebody please comment on the general linux desktop speed and snappiness? I tried SuSE linux a couple years ago and found it to be a little slow. Loading a browser took like 10 seconds. Everything seemed real slow, even dragging a window.

How are the new distributions doing on the current higher end hardware? Are things fast now, i.e. starting FF, moving windows, starting a text editor etc.

Thanks.

Most Linux file systems fragment the file system on purpose. It is designed to be fast, in spite of fragmentation. You never have to defrag linux file systems (speaking of ext2 and ext3 specifically.

That really all depends on your video card. If you want video cards that work well with linux, avoid ATI products at all costs, and buy Nvidia or Intel. If you have a well supported card, it should be just as snappy as any other OS.

Ubuntu and Kubuntu aren't that bad.....it's basically just a pimped up version
of debian.......I'm not a big fan of ubuntu myself......but then again I haven't
played with it enough to really start to like it.........I work all day with unix yet
on my workstation and laptop I run XP.......simply coz it's a lot more compatible
with almost every desktop app than linux........I know you can get almost
everything done that you can on windows.....but half the time that means
you can run non linux stuff on a linux system........and that's never an
improvement....... SecureCRT is all I need when working in unix....that's a
lot less hassle than fucking around with X windows and installing tons of shit
I'd need to do the same on linux..........I don't see the point or advantage in
doing that.......it's as stupid as trying to cook a meal in a laundry machine....

I do have a unix server in my office which I use a production/file server
but for any non server task.......linux isn't any better than good old windows.
I never have to reboot windows or any of the bullshit that people usely come
up with.......all the popular windows dissadvantages are 90% caused by
the user instead of windows.......if you keep your box clean....don't install
crappy software or "Cracked" versions and whenever you deinstall something
you also clean the registry than there's not much performance reasons why
you rather should use linux.........

Ok.....unless you really hate to occasionally reboot your machine after
software upgrades that really require a reboot.......which these days isn't
that often anymore......the days that changing your ip or any other network
setting and HAD to reboot are long gone..........

The advantages of Linux/Unix over windows don't have anything todo with
usage as a desktop........linux geeks don't want to hear it.......but if asked
to show me I'm wrong.....

The only reason I can think of why you would install it on your workstation
is to learn how to use it.......if you want to learn howto work with unix than
that's a good reason to play with it on your workstation.......anything other
than that.........imo is absolute useless :winkwink:

Ok thats windows resize/movement. What about application loading speed. Has that improved at all?

Damn... and I thought I abused the '.....' notation.

Linux makes a great workstation, depending on the tools you need to use. I like having a fully functional system out of the box, that comes with applications to do just about anything I need to do. Not having to hunt down some shareware 3rd party app every time I need to take care of some trivial task saves so much time for me, it more than makes up for any other time spent tweaking settings (although theres not much you have to do these days anyhow, unless you have some poorly supported hardware).

To each his own though...

of course Ubuntu rocks, its Linux, Linux rocks. But OSX > *

As far as linux goes.... give me Slackware or Gentoo.

Really depends on your machine, and a whole lot of other factors. Depends on the desktop environment you use (GNOME, KDE, or something else etc). GNOME and KDE generally have a little bit more overhead than the lightweight desktop environments/window managers (XFCE, WindowMaker, Blackbox). Everyone's experience is going to be different, based on their hardware profile. And of course, having lots of RAM, and fast hard disks is going to go a long way.

You shouldnt have many load time issues if your running on modern hardware.

I prefer Fedora.

KDE is pretty spiffy. As long as your OS work for what you want it to do, who gives a shit?

i love these ms bashing noobie.
you retard do not hv the iq to run a pc properly, cursing ms for your own stupidity and run toward the other inferior os do not make you a better user. infact, you will hv more problems because the lack of driver support.

by the way, vista is the best os up to date. i am now typing on an UMPC with windows vista running. it is fast, reponsive and stable. more than enough to rip some kiddie apple os ubanana shit lol

lol I have a patent on '.....' :1orglaugh and yes you're right......to each his
own......and I didn't mean that linux sucks as a workstation.....it did look
that way a bit.....what I meant is that it's no point to use linux if 90% of the
time you want to do the same stuff that you would do on a windows machine

for example run photoshop instead of using gimp.....;-)
use a bunch of windows apps that only work using wine or vmware ;-)

Also though vlc is a great media player......if you work a lot with media
stuff......windows has a lot more, easier and sometimes better tools than
what's available in linux....

and for me.....all the things I need unix for......I'd never do using a GUI
interface.....ssh, vi, compilers and programing languages is almost everything
I ever need......so a simple shell is all I need to do my thing.....I'd never
use a gui editor for editing files or to write code.......in fact I hardly really
write code on a unix box......I use UltraEdit to write code.....I use vi to edit
and make changes.......I'm so addicted to UltraEdit that I'd even keep a windows box only for that :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

There's probably similar editors for unix.......but I'm just too lazy to get to
learn it as good as I know UltraEdit.....it would take months before I remember
all the keyboard shortcuts for all the stuff I need to do........if you code
yourself, use windows and for some reason haven't tried UltraEdit......then
I recommend to check it out...........I've never seen any other editor so
advanced and still friendly to use.....The guy who build that editor deserves
a fucking statue............It's a shareware app and dirtcheap to buy......but
even it would cost $500 I'd still buy it without a shadow of a doubt......

:thumbsup