What to tweak/remove in Debian/Ubuntu to make 'em fastest/faster

[Jags_FL]

I was searching about 'Fastest GNOME Distro' and found many posts (on this & other Linux forums) saying Debian / Ubuntu would be fastest/faster, among GNOME distros, after some tweaks / removing "crap/unwanted stuff". By fastest I mean, quick/improved boot time & highly responsive afterwords.

For a Desktop my usage is pretty basic I guess... Firefox, RSS Reader, Pidgin, GIMP, Open-Office Writer, gedit, VLC Media Player, Brasero, BitTorrent(rarely). Few unwanted things I know already... Evolution, Banshee/Totem, Games etc.


So my questions are:

1, What are those tweaks/settings
2, What are those unwanted packages


Also(unrelated to being fastest), is there such a thing exists / need to be done like tweaking the firewall for max protection or automated/regular cleanup of temp files etc (e.g. CCleaner/Tune-Up Utilities for Windows, not the Firefox cleanup on exit) in Debian/Ubuntu or they have it built-in ?

Thanks a million in advance, any input is greatly appreciated. -jags


PS: also any comment/suggestion on this thread, please:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...goto=firstpost

[Sealbhach]

You can remove Tracker, if you feel you don't need to search your computer much.

Also, you could use lighter office software such as Abiword instead of Open Office.

Remove the Orca accessibility stuff, if you're fortunate enough not to need it.

Disable ipv6 in your browser...

there's lots of tweaks out there.

.

[steeleyuk]

Install the preload package.

adaptive readahead daemon
preload monitors applications that users run, and by analyzing this
data, predicts what applications users might run, and fetches those
binaries and their dependencies into memory for faster startup times.

Note that installing preload will not make your system boot faster
and that preload is a daemon that runs with root priviledges.

Sorry, init beat me

[Jags_FL]

Sealbhach, init1 and steeleyuk


You guys are lightning fasst

I mean really, even before I can ask "What's Preload, 'steeleyuk' answered it already...


The reason I prefer GNOME is, I find it simple and very friendly.


A quick Q: How to remove virtual terminals


I would love to hear more so guys please keep your comments/suggestions coming.


- Many thanks for the replies.

[steeleyuk]

I have no idea whether this will break anything else though.

[Jags_FL]

Thanks steeleyuk.

I have spared a Desktop just to test/experiment with Debian Unstable and Ubuntu Dailies so even if they break I can just reinstall 'em back.

[oldos2er]

"A quick Q: How to remove virtual terminals"

If you're running such a low-end system that you need to start counting the number of ttys loaded, I'd consider a distro far lighter than Ubuntu, e.g. Arch or Slax. The ttys use a very small amount of RAM.

Google is your friend in looking up Tips & Tricks on slimming down Ubuntu. And if you haven't already, look at this forum's Tutorials and Tips section.

[init1]

Yeah I've researched that too. All the sites I've found say
1. Remove unnecessary programs
2. Remove some virtual terminals
3. Use light apps
4. Use preload
If you want a faster system, I'd use fluxbox or an other WM instead of Gnome in a minimal install of Debian or Ubuntu. I would also install preload

sudo apt-get install preload

As for firewall/clean up, I don't think you need to worry about either of those in Linux.