Improve speed of Linux

When people hear about Linux, they either think about speed, or about being really confused. Either way, sometimes Linux runs a little slower than you’d like. Luckily you can speed the system up a little bit (or a lot, depending) using one or more of the simple tricks below.

Remove Unnecessary Apps

This happens to many computer users—they see an app, think it looks cool and useful, then download it and never use it again. These apps build up overtime and bog a system down. Start uninstalling apps you don’t need and your system should increase in overall speed.

Reduce Start-Up Apps

There are a number of different processes that start up when you first boot, and probably don’t use most of them. The startup processes will vary based on the distro, but all have the same effect—they slow things down. Pull up the startup processes (which will also vary based on distro), disable them, and they won’t slow things down anymore.

Reduce Swap Space

Swap space is for people too cheap to buy RAM (ok, so maybe you’re using old hardware). Swap space is basically an empty part of your hard drive that has been reserved specifically for swapping info out with the RAM. If you have a lot of processes going, your system will swap the data in the RAM with the data in the swap space as a way to let you run more apps. The problem is that this is a slow process, and unnecessary if you don’t need it.

Increase App Memory

Some programs will slug along, making it appear that your system is slower than arctic ice, when in reality, the program is simply being starved of adequate memory. Crack open the help files and see if there is a way to increase the memory for that particular application. If there is, increase it and things should speed up.

Burp Your Apps

Alright, this might sound odd, but so does “bloated apps” if you think about it. By ‘burps apps’, we mean, “Uninstall the crapware”. Some people might gasp at this suggestion, not because they think it won’t work, but because of the insinuation that Linux has bloatware. Sorry, but it’s true. Some programs for Linux are just too clunky, chunky, and memory hungry to have on a fast machine. Burp your apps and notice the speed increase.

Increase RAM

This isn’t a software tweak, but oftentimes it can make a big difference. Look for a small flap on the back of your laptop (or a slot inside the your tower) and add some more. Going from 1GB to 4GB will make a big difference in many cases.

Disable Eye Candy

Those sweet Compiz tricks, those menu effects, those fancy mouse pointers and jumping icons are all nice for showing your friends how awesome Linux is, but isn’t so great when it comes to getting maximum speed on your system. Depending on how many things you are running, those graphics can slow a system down considerably. Disabling the various effects will greatly speed a system up.

Eliminate Hardware Bottlenecking

You end up with a bottleneck when one piece of hardware is faster than another. This can happen because you have a slower-than-dirt hard drive, a slow CPU with a fast graphics card, etc. Look at your hardware, make a list if you need to, and update things that are slower. On the other hand, make sure your system isn’t slowing down your hard drive as a way to insure stability.

Update Kernel

A newer kernel will, in most cases, be faster than an older one. If you’re running an old kernel, update it, or switch to a different distro with a kernel that plays nicer with your particular hardware.

Changing File Systems

If you’ve been running the same system for awhile, you might be using an older, slower file system. Updating from EXT2/3 to EXT 4 will speed things up a bit, though it will likely necessitate a complete system overhaul, which might speed things up as well.

Use Command Line Apps

Technically, all apps are command line. The wonderful geeks of the world then add a graphical user interface, most commonly called a GUI, which gives you a nice program to click and point in, making it easier for the everyday user or someone unfamiliar with the program to use. The downside to a GUI is that it automatically makes an app a little more bloated then it otherwise would be. You can reduce its impact on your system by using it as a command line app, and only requires a little bit of memorization.

Eliminate Boot Timer

If you use GRUB, then you’re no doubt familiar with the annoying little timer that counts down when you first start the computer up. That timer is handy if you are dual-booting, but mostly just annoying if you’re only running Linux on the machine. To speed the boot-process up a little bit, crack open the Terminal and edit the ‘grub’ file, changing the timer countdown value to ‘0’.

Remove Menu Icons

Menu icons are mostly useless if you’re capable of reading, especially since most users concerned with speed already have shortcuts to launch their favorite apps. To get rid of that delay that happens when you click on the menu, disable the icons. This can usually be done by right-clicking on the menu and unchecking the box for displaying icons.

Change Desktop Environment

If you’re using Linux, there’s a good chance you’re using either Gnome or KDE. KDE is even slower than Gnome, but both are slower than many of the other systems available. If you still want menu bars but don’t want to be as bogged down, look at the XFCE desktop environment. If you’re really looking for speed, you can download Fluxbox, Icebox, or Blackbox, all of which are as Spartan as you can get. Some distros come with these desktop environments preloaded. With others, you need to download them and switch. Don’t worry, the process can be reversed in case you don’t like how it functions.