[kde-freebsd] Call for Testing KDE 4.2 for FreeBSD

[Freddie Cash]

On February 2, 2009 11:37 am David Johnson wrote:
> On Monday 02 February 2009 08:53:06 am Freddie Cash wrote:
> > > * I am getting the "vista-effect" as my older 2.8Gz P4 / Radeon 9000
> > > aren't up to the task of KDE4. I have desktop effects turned off.
> > > I've heard some rumours that Qt 4.5 may improve things, but I really
> > > do need to get a new computer. The days of refurbishing older
> > > hardware by installing *Nix may be drawing to an end...
> >
> > You definitely should not be getting a "vista-effect" with that
> > hardware. I also have a P4 2.8 GHz CPU, but with crappy onboard Intel
> > i915 graphics (8 MB shared RAM), and 2 GB of RAM; and I don't have any
> > noticeable slowdown in the GUI.
>
> I may have a bad configurations somewhere. I've pored over all of the
> desktop tuning pages I could find, and It helped a little bit, but not
> nearly enough.
>
> > The only time things are slow is when I try to load multiple apps at
> > once, and the harddrive grinds away.  Once apps are loaded, things are
> > smooth and quick, and the desktop is always smooth and quick.
>
> As a long time user of Unix systems, I naturally expect the ability to
> run multiple apps at the same time under heavy load. Have those days
> disappeared?

:)  I think you're misunderstanding me.  On my system, I can *run* multiple 
apps at the same time without issues.  It's only when I try to *start* 
multiple apps at once that things slow down ... while the harddrive churns 
away trying to load the apps into memory.  While it's doing this, the 
desktop is still usable, not as snappy until all the apps are loaded into 
memory, but definitely still usable.

I have a bad habit of trying to load multiple apps simultaneously, which 
really stresses my poor 120 GB SATA drives.  :)  Launching Firefox 3, K3b, 
Kaffeine, KTorrent, and Dolphin right after login can take a several 
minutes.  Once the harddrive stops churning, though, I can watch movies, 
download multiple torrents, browse web pages, and burn DVDs all at the same 
time.

-- 
Freddie
fjwcash at gmail.com