Open Office and System Admin very slow

[Jim Kronebusch]

On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:30:58 +0530, Kalyani wrote
> Hi. I have a Pentium 4 machine with 256 MB RAM and 40 GB harddisk. I have
> Edubuntu 7.04 (Fiesty Fawn) loaded on it along with the educational software
> that come with it. The machine runs very slow when I work on open office
> (word processor, spread sheet) and when I try doing any system admin tasks.
> I mean very, very slow.
> 
> Does this mean I need more RAM? How much would suffice. I thought 128 MB RAM
> would be adequate as mentioned on the Edubuntu CD (that came from
> Cannonical).
> 
> Is there a way I can make the system go faster using its existing resources?

I haven't actually read what you mention on the Edubuntu CD, but I'll bet they are
referring to 128MB being sufficient for a thin client (which I can assure it is).  But
it looks like the workstation/server you are talking about is running Edubuntu stand
alone at the point (not a thin client).  My experience is that 256MB RAM will be
sluggish with a full featured desktop such as Gnome or KDE.  My advice would be to add
another 256MB RAM if you can or maybe use and OS such as Xubuntu and just load the
educational apps that interest you (if you plan on keeping this machine as stand alone).
 If you can't add RAM and really need this machine to run Edubuntu, try lighter weight
office packages such as Abiword and Gnumeric (word processor, spread sheet respectively).

In a terminal run:

sudo apt-get install abiword gnumeric

And they should be available for you to try.

I suppose instead of wiping things out and installing Xubuntu you could:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop       #(this may take a while to complete, get coffee)

And then choose XFCE on login instead of Gnome (or is that metacity?).

HTH
Jim

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by the Cotter Technology 
Department, and is believed to be clean.