wahlau's online hut

have you ever felt that even though you are on a "super fast" linux system, it still start to slow down without apparent reason? Well, i have no answer to that, but i know recent software aren't as small as they were used to be. It all comes back to your current system's setting and its capability to run multiple software at once. I myself find ubuntu with most standard software plus claws-mail (no evolution/thunderbird for me) pretty good. Of course, i have 1.5GB of RAM.

But going lightweight is not really an issue. If you don't need Firefox 3, you can try Epiphany. I tried it and felt it is not really that much different from FF except the extensions and features, but i can leave without the extras. For email you can even go all the way down to console client, such as Mutt :) i myself opt for Claws-Mail, which does the job pretty well. For IM i don't find Pidgin slow, so i do not know what can do more. For multimedia i usually go for VLC. Simple but comprehensive media playback without much features like Rhythmbox or Amarok. Though for best experience i usually use Amarok. As alternative, try Listen!. I personally don't find Openoffice slow, but if you want alternatives, you can go for Abiword for word processing. Other office applications i have seriously no idea - not that i use them often ;)

do you have similar tips? mind sharing? have fun enjoying all the choices you can have with FOSS.

update 25.9.2008:
While i was reading the Linux jornal last night, i came across two other candidates - Midori Browser and PCManFM. The former is a very fast web browser based on Webkit. It is really blazing fast. Imagine having it started within a second on the Asus EeePC 701 with 512MB. that is real speed. Too bad it is still very young, and many functions are not really there yet (such as pop up are disabled, plugin integration not fully working). But if you want something real fast and can serve you web content, try it. you will like the speed.

The latter is a simple fast file manager. I tried it and for local files, it is perfect. Works fast, has all the file manager features a common user will need, and looks pretty close to nautilus, as far as i am concerned. Will give it a try too as long as i don't need network file transfer such as a samba share access.