Very slow MySQL performance

[Dave M G]

Ubuntu Users,

	I am running MySQL 4.1 on Ubunti 5.10 on a Pentium 3 500Mhz with 512MB
ram.
	I control MySQL through phpMyAdmin via FireFox, in order to simulate as
close as possible the environment that I use to manage my web sites on
my hosting service.

	The performance of executing even the simplest of commands is brutally
slow. A good thirty seconds to a minute for just about any command
executed.

	I'm wondering if this means my computer is too slow for this kind of
work. Does MySQL, Apache, PHP and the like require a faster set up than
the one I have? of course, a better computer would perform faster, but
I'm surprised I fall below minimum requirements.

	Or might there be something wrong with my settings?

	Any advice would be much appreciated.

	Thank you.

--
Dave M G