Speed up 8.04 on old machine, and why do my apps dock in top bar?

[LadyLuck]

Hi after my last upgrade to 8.04 (jumping over several incarnations) the machine I'm running Ubuntu on (which is old) slowed down significantly. Any particular source I can visit for advice on speeding things up. (I'm using gnome).
Also recently apps have taken to dock in the top bar (Finder) hiding it and the "windows" are completely immobile. Is this a "feature" an "inadvertent setting" on my part or a "bug" ?
Thanks
LadyLuck

[LadyLuck]

I'm refering above to the Gnome panel. Even terminal windows dock on top of the Gnome Panel and can then not be moved around on the screen.

[wilee-nilee]

Tell us about this old machine, it may be that there is a better distribution that will run better or you may need a little ram boost. It is hard to tell at least for me exactly whats going on.

[LadyLuck]

Thanx for chipping in WN. Itś an DELL Optiplex GX110. He, he, he, very, very old. So I should just switch too puppy or dream lInux I guess, and return to Ubuntu when I finally venture into Linux on a brand new computer.

I would still like to understand why my applications dock on the Gnome panel!

Best
LL

[QLee]

Also recently apps have taken to dock in the top bar (Finder) hiding it and the "windows" are completely immobile. Is this a "feature" an "inadvertent setting" on my part or a "bug" ?

Does what you're describing mean that the application is opening full screen and covering the panel?

Did you set the panel to autohide or not be on top?

Since you used the term "finder" are you more familiar with Apples?

What you described sounds to me like an app in full screen mode covering the panel, is there an icon in the top right (perhaps the middle one of three) that pops up a dialogue "restore" when you hover your cursor on it? If there is, what happens when you click it?

[mörgæs]

My rule of thumb is: Anything with 512 MB memory or more can run Ubuntu, anything with less is better off with Puppy. The processor and other gear is less important.

The official guidelines are here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...emRequirements

But probably the best advice is: Just try from a live cd and see how it works out on your machine.

By the way, you are not the only one experiencing a slower system after upgrading:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...nch_2008&num=1

[LadyLuck]

Thanks for chipping in QLee and Mörgæs. No such icon I'm afraid. Here are some further hints (I think)
1) I can resize windows but not move them around
2) Windows (e.g. Firefox, Opera, Terminal) are docked in the upper left hand corner
3) The Firefox top panel hides the Gnome panel. The Gnome panel appears when you make the Firefox window very small
4) The opera panel doeas not override (/hide) the gnome panel
5) When I click the bottome left icon to hide all windows and show the desktop I get this error message:
Your window manager does not support the show desktop button, or you are not running a window manager.

Best LL

[LadyLuck]

I have gotten around the problem with appilcation windows dockin in the to LH corner. From

System => Preferences => Appearance

I selected the Visual Effects tab and changed the selction to "Normal" instead of "None"

The change actually failed but during the process of trying to implement "Normal Visual effects" the orangie-brown top bar appeared on my application windows and I can now move them around on the desktop.

yippie

Best
LL