speeding up linux

[IntelUser101]

im on one of my 5th hour computers and they are so slow..they run linux and i dont know what kind of version it is or if it matters..how would i speed it up without downloading anything? i know i ask alot of questions but they go to a good cause..please help me

 

[horndude]

Other than making sure the hard drive(s) are setup properly by checking with 'hdparm', not much, you can turn off the timestamping feature but with a school PC that might not be a good idea.Other than that just make sure needless background processes arent slowing things down.Linux is fairly efficient as OS's go these days, not any faster or slower than any other when dealing with single processes, but it handles multiple processes better than others that arent POSIX compliant.

 

[mindfrost82]

How would you turn off timestamping in linux? I have Slackware 10.1.

 

[horndude]

use "chattr -R +A /directory" or you can do single files, or if you want a whole partition not to have timestamping add "noatime" in your /etc/fstab file in the line corresponding to the drive you want

the difference in speed in most cases is miniscule, it only really helps for something that has a whole bunch of little files coming and going constantly like a mail server or usenet server,something like that

 

[Polymorphic]

turning off timestamping is unlikely to do much of anything in a standard desktop setup. increase swap space, more memory of course, hdparm, reducing what running services you have and choosing a leaner window manager will all do much more.