On Tue, 14 Aug 2001, Phil Driscoll wrote:
KDE applications now start up via kdeinit. KDE utilises a support environment which includes the DCOP inter-application communications program and the ksycoca configuration cache. These are normally started up when KDE itself starts, so KDE applications will launch quickly when started from KDE. When you start a KDE application from outside KDE, it has to start up the support environment first, which is what is causing the added delay under IceWM. The trick I'm looking for is probably getting the kde support environment up and running as the desktop boots so that the KDE apps can take advantage of Sycoca etc. Anyone know how?
Haven't tried it, but it should work: Start up one of your X programs (e.g. the window manager) via kdeinit. This will bring up the KDE support environment and then execute your window manager.
Just for reference, on the system that IRL/Fen Systems just put in to Woodlands Junior School in Kent, StarOffice starts in around three seconds flat. That's 3 times quicker than my 1200MHz AMD machine does it!
Interesting: the server in question was a single-processor 1GHz Intel PIII machine. (There is also a dual-1GHz PIII server, but it wasn't switched on at the time of the informal test). I think this corroborates what I have been saying for years: the best way to get high performance out of Linux boxes is to shove plenty of RAM in there. The server had (AFAICR) 1GB of RAM, so most applications can start up from cache rather than from disk. This is, although I know you might not want to hear this, another argument in favour of terminal servers a la LTSP / Fen Systems / etc. Shared memory between applications on the server means that you get even more bang for your buck* out of the extra memory you add in to increase performance. * OK, so it's a little bit academic now that you can now pick up 2GB RAM for £166 (or £360 if you want branded and ECC), but 2GB RAM for one server is still cheaper than 256MB RAM for each of 25 clients. Michael