This one time, at band camp, Mark L. Kahnt said: > On Fri, 2002-12-27 at 11:55, Jeff wrote: > > Michael Evaniuck, 2002-Dec-27 09:40 -0700: > > > If I run am running Debian and attempt to run multiple applications at > > > the same time performance degrades a lot. For example if I am playing an > > > MP3 on XMMS and while playing it run Mozilla the MP3 cuts out while it is > > > loading. I have noticed this happens on some other distros but to a much > > > lesser extent. On Gentoo this does not happen at all but I do not have > > > the time to spend compiling all my software. Redhat/Mandrake it happens > > > but not nearly as bad. Debian gives me the worst performance of two > > > applications. Surprisingly Windows 98/2K/XP this does not happen at all > > > and you can not tell me M$ multitasks better then Linux!! This happens in > > > either KDE, Gnome, or Windowmaker. My system is as follows: > > > > > > Duron 800mhz > > > 256MB RAM > > > NVidea TNT2 (32MB) Graphics Card > > > Ensoniq Sound Card > > > > > > BTW - I borrowed a 1.3Ghz processor and put in 512MB RAM and saw no > > > difference. > > > > This is interesting. On my laptop (P3-750mhz, 256MB RAM), I have no > > problems like you describe. I would suspect that your desktop > > environment is eating up too many resources. I run xfce which is MUCH > > lighter than KDE and Gnome, but I'm not sure about Windowmaker. > > Perhaps load a light window manager and try it out. > > I would point the finger at the Linux implementation of the mpg123 > routine, which is a heavier load on Linux than on other platforms it is > implemented from my past experience, and is heavier than various other > mp3 utilities from my experience. I used mpg123 on both Linux and OS/2 > on my old Pentium 90 MHz box with its 80 MiB of RAM, and it was smooth > under OS/2, but to keep it from breaking up under Linux, I had to cut > the sampling by 4 and settle for mono playback. MPG321, meanwhile, has > always been fine. He said he's using xmms, which has always done much better here than mpg123. I'd have to guess offhand, without knowing more of his circumstances, that the problem is likely to be DMA related. Many of Debian's stock kernels don't seem to turn on DMA by default, and this can easily make an otherwise wuick box feel sluggish. Try compiling your own kernel with DMA turned on and see how you do. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Stephen Gran | Miguel Cervantes wrote Donkey Hote. | | steve@lobefin.net | Milton wrote Paradise Lost, then his | | http://www.lobefin.net/~steve | wife died and he wrote Paradise | | | Regained. | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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