Re: [RFC] kernel facilities for cache prefetching

[Helge Hafting <helge.hafting@aitel.hist.no>]

Wu Fengguang wrote:

> 	Rapid linux desktop startup through pre-caching
>
>
> MOTIVATION
>
> 	KDE, Gnome, OpenOffice, and Firefox all take too long to start up.
> 	Boot time pre-caching seems to be the single most straightforward and
> 	effective way to improve it and make linux desktop experience more
> 	comfortable. It is a great pleasure for me to take up the work.
>  
Actually, the best way is to not run so much software.  An yes,
that is an option.  I won't say no to an improved kernel too though. :-)

The apps mentioned are popular, but few needs *all* of them.
One can do without KDE and gnome, run a nice lightweight
window manager instead.  Take the kde/gnome performance hit
only when you actually need some kde/gnome app. Not every day.
A nice windowmanager like icewm of fluxbox brings the login
delay down to 3s or so for me.

Openoffice has lightweight alternatives for every task.
(abiword,lyx,gnumeric, . . . )  Strange that this bloated sw is
as popular as it is, given the many alternatives.  Not something
I use every month, and I use linux exclusively for my office tasks.

Another alternative is to profile the slow apps and improve them.
Fix algorithms, optimize stuff. 

The slow boot is fixable by:
1) run boot scripts in parallell instead of sequentially - somewhat 
experimental
   but helps.  Especially if you can bring up X before slowest stuff 
completes.
2) Don't run what you don't use/need!  Don't install everything and the 
kitchen
   sink just because it is free software.  I am guilty of installing 
too much myself,
   so I suffer 40-second bootup time.  But I don't reboot my office pc 
every
   week, normally I only have that 3s login delay.

Helge Hafting


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