Ask Slashdot: Best Small-Footprint Modern Browser? 475
Annirak writes "I've recently started a paid internship at a company which is expanding faster than their IT department can supply new hardware. As a consequence, I've been issued a P4 2.4GHz with 512MB of RAM. Currently, I am using Firefox 4, but I find that it eats up far too much of my limited RAM. I'd rather not give up some of the more modern UI features that are offered by the current versions of Firefox and Chrome, but I need a smaller footprint. What other browsers are out there which could help me conserve resources?"
Opera (Score:5, Informative)
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You don't really have to disable anything, all that functionality is there but it's not doing anything until you use it.
I set up Opera for my dad on a P4/512MB PC, and it does indeed run very well. However, soon he started complaining that it was very slow. I checked and it turned out that he had so many tabs open (many of them with some Flash videos paused) that you could only see their icons and none of the title text. Oops.
Admittedly I have the same habit of using tabs as bookmarks, but at least I have 1
Obvious answer (Score:5, Informative)
is of course Lynx.
Aside from that Opera should require at lot less resources.
X server on Windows, FF on a Linux server (Score:3)
There are several free X servers that can run on WIndows - Xming, Cygwin, etc. Run one of them and log in to a nearby Linux server that has enough RAM to actually run Firefox on. Or boot Linux from a memory stick.
Or if you only have Windows servers, use Windows Remote Desktop to run the browser on one of them, though that's a bit more awkward.
Lighten the Load (Score:2, Informative)
Try disabling flash, other plugins, and javascript. It makes 99% of sites faster, and only breaks about 30% of sites. Of the sites that aren't worthless, only about 5% are broken (mostly shopping sites).
If you install NoScript in Firefox, you can selectively enable/disable scripts and flash and other plugins for specific domains, only enabling what you want.
This also prevents most advertisements from loading.
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Disabling flash still allows you to vist most sites, though disabling Javascript is now unrealistic given the number of sites using Ajax. Flash video can increasingly be worked around if you have an HTML5 capable browser, since many sites support the video tag.
Lynx (Score:4, Informative)
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Why do people keep suggesting Lynx? I'm glad you know about 90s-era text browsing, but even that's moved on. If you're going this route, use Links [wikipedia.org] people!!
Just... wow. (Score:3)
I saw the "expanding faster than their IT department can supply new hardware" note, but - come on. That hardware is close to a decade old! Is their IT department run by an 80-year-old man?
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That hardware is close to a decade old! Is their IT department run by an 80-year-old man?
Exactly. I'm not sure I would want to intern (slave labor) at a place that tossed me one of those. Is it a "Gateway"? You can find them at Goodwill for $20!
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Doesn't really surprise me.
A while ago I had to use a laptop with a 1.5 GHz Celeron, 1GB RAM and Intel graphics.
Reduce FireFox ram usage (Score:2)
The RAM usage in FireFox isn't a bug, and there are things you can do to make it use less RAM:
Grail (Score:2)
Bring back grail.. it was small, fast and mulitplatform out of the box, being based on Python.
( and one of the first broswers.. )
Seems like you have been duped (Score:5, Insightful)
"...expanding faster than their IT department can supply new hardware" is corporate terms for "..because we are almost broke"
My recommendation, just stay away.
Not necesarilly (Score:4, Interesting)
This happened to me (an apparently many other interns) at one of the National Laboratories. The lab wasn't strapped for cash nor going away anytime soon. The real problem was that the guy that hired me didn't plan ahead and order a computer (which can take weeks to get thanks to procurement overhead), so he panicked and snagged one on the way to reapplication. I scrounged up some more RAM from reapp, and it worked fine for the three months I was there.
Re:Seems like you have been duped (Score:4, Funny)
Nah, that's corporate speak for "Interns? They don't need a laptop to make coffee! Just dig up something from storage and let 'em play with that."
Re:Seems like you have been duped (Score:4, Interesting)
Nope, not at all. I work for one of the largest software companies that isn't going anywhere (even if you wanted it to). The process, at least in our office, is that new employees get whatever's available in the warehouse (currently mostly P4s with 1-2GB of RAM and WinXP) and a new machine is ordered for them (Core i5, 4-8GB, etc). It can take a while for the new hardware to arrive.
I have a feeling though that whoever is doing the hiring for our team doesn't pay enough attention to this, otherwise the new computers could be ordered in advance. But that's just annoying at most, and not an indication that the company is broke.
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X (padding to eliminate "Filter error") (Score:5, Interesting)
Run the browser on the Corei7 guy's computer, use his RAM, and see it on yours. ;-)
Opera (Score:5, Informative)
I think you would want to give Opera a try. I compared some of the major browsers several months ago, and what I found was that Chrome was fast but uses RAM excessively, and Firefox was slow but used less RAM. Opera seemed to be strong in both speed and memory conservation, the main drawback being that it is not open source. Firefox is faster now that version 4 is out, putting it in competitive range of Opera, although I'd wager that Opera is still more efficient.
Now if you're able and willing to try non-mainstream browsers, there are a lot of fun things you can play with. Epiphany is a popular underdog choice, and other alternative browsers run a full gamut of niches. In the past I've tried Konqueror, Midori, Aurora, Dillo, and yes, even elinks (I've actually used it productively, so I'm not joking). There is even that funny K-Meleon browser for windows. I don't know how many of these are still in active development, but many alternative browsers do excel in being lightweight, so on systems with limited resources you will see noticeable speed gains. The downside is that you will get compatibility problems, and the Javascript engine may be slow.
If you really want to have fun try browsers designed for embedded/mobile systems, such as Android.
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Why the HELL do you need 140 tabs open at once?
That's thinking the wrong way around. Why would you want to bother closing tabs manually? And if you don't, tabs start to crop up... And then if the browser can't cope, it is a problem with the browser, not user who doesn't want to do manual organizing just to please his browser.
Chromium (Score:2)
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Chrome or Opera (Score:2)
Don't know if this is still true, but as recently as v9 some websites would have problems with Opera's Javascript implementation.
Lynx (Score:2)
Firefox 4 (Score:2)
Firefox 4, built in bartab [zpao.com]. When you set browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs=0 , only tabs you click on get loaded.
If that's not good enough for you, get the same setup on lubuntu or similar lightweight Linux, or just go buy some more RAM [crucial.com] and install it yourself. Should be $30-60 for 2 1-gig sticks depending on the type needed. If that's too much to expense or pay out of pocket, can't you help much.
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For some supporting details, see: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/internet-explorer-9-chrome-10-opera-11,2897-11.html [tomshardware.com]
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Every review I've read says otherwise.
Here's one of the better ones:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/internet-explorer-9-chrome-10-opera-11,2897-11.html [tomshardware.com]
If you'd like to disagree, please back it up with evidence.
Figure it out for yourself (Score:2)
There are only a few major browsers. IE (7 and 8), Firefox (3, since you've tried 4), Safari, Chrome, and Opera. Each have their pros and cons with regard to speed, features, etc. How these get weighted depend on what your preferences are and which sites you visit.
There are two browser hogs of resources: flash and javascript. If you can, get rid of flash altogether. If you can't, at least use a browser/plugin/etc that allows you to "click to play" flash. That'll do more than any browser switch.
Use eac
Netfront (Score:2)
bring in your own laptop (Score:4, Funny)
Federal approval? (Score:2)
Why not Chrome? (Score:2)
Re:Buy more ram (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not expensive and if you get worth out of the investment it's a good thing all the way around.
Spoken like someone who hasn't looked at DDR1 RAM prices lately.
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It's not expensive and if you get worth out of the investment it's a good thing all the way around.
Spoken like someone who hasn't looked at DDR1 RAM prices lately.
They might be expensive new, but you can pickup a pair of 512 or a single 1024 stick of DDR for $10-$20. Rambus is even more ridiculous new, but there are still a bunch of eBay buy-it-now auctions for 1-gig RDRAM for $18 with free shipping.
Not always possible to install more ram (Score:5, Interesting)
How would you propose adding RAM to a maxed-out system?
The laptop I'm typing this from has 1GB of RAM. This is the maximum it supports; it cannot take more. Incidentally, the laptop is over 8 years old and runs fine, even the battery is still OK. It's a Celeron system currently running Lubuntu 10.04, since the LXDE desktop is leaner than Gnome or KDE (some unnecessary services are disabled also). I rely on Opera as the primary browser, and usually don't need a swap file even with a good number of tabs open in Opera, and some other applications running (right now: Inkscape, Gimp, Thunderbird, Pidgin, and a few lxterminal/bash/pcmanfm windows).
[warning: rant] This laptop has not been replaced partly because modern laptops with equivalent displays (1920x1200) are priced outrageously. I see no reason to downgrade to a 1920x1080 shortscreen, but object to the notion of paying double the money to keep the extra 120 rows of pixels. [apologies for rant]
Re:Not always possible to install more ram (Score:4, Interesting)
If you have anyone who has more RAM that would fit; try it. Many systems have a max memory listing from the manufacturer only because that's the biggest stick they had at the time. My Dell (4-5 years old now) lists 2GB as the max; the actual is a bit over 3GB (Intel chipset limitation) - but Dell only ever tried with 1GB sticks. I've seen many desktops with the same; listing 1-2GB as the max but able to take denser sticks.
Find old machines being cast off/recycled; swipe RAM. Worst case you pass it on to someone else's machine...
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Re:Buy more ram (Score:5, Insightful)
As for keeping memory usage down, Opera 9 is a good bet (10 is a little heavier), but no matter what browser you use, you may have to change your browsing habits a little. Loads of tabs open is going to eat up memory no matter what browser you're on, and all of them have memory leaks to some extent (though none quite so bad as Firefox...), so you may want to set your browser to "reopen the tabs I had last" on startup, and just quit-restart every now and then.
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Whatever. Given how busy it sounds the IT department is, they should have bigger things to worry about than whether an intern added more memory to a machine. That change isn't going to conflict with their prebuilt system images the way that changing a video card would, and this machine is most likely going to the dumpster as soon as his internship is over anyway.
Furthermore, any competent IT department will know that adding unsupported software is a bigger problem than adding unsupported hardware. If they d
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Don't do this. As illogical as uppity Slashdot "power users" think it is, IT departments hate it when people upgrade their machines without consulting them. Full-time employees, they'd probably be willing to let it slide after a stern talk, but for interns? No guarantees.
My IT department feels that way, but it does not stop with hardware upgrades. We are not to touch any of the software installed on the machine, period. We are warned that installing software or hooking up unauthorized equipment can subject us to disciplinary action.
Maybe the poster's IT department doesn't care if he installs stuff. If it does care, my advice is not to fiddle with the machine. My work computer has only IE 7. It's a piece of junk and makes it hard to do my job sometimes. That's not my problem
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Intern shows up one morning, with a couple sticks of memory in his hand, and addresses the IT chief. "Hey, boss - my machine really runs slow, and everyone knows that 512 meg of memory isn't enough to run any modern operating system. How about we add this gig of memory to the old machine, and see how it runs?"
I'll bet dollars to pennies that the IT guy says, "Can you do it yourself, boy? All my people are busy. Get it done, and get out of my hair."
Re:Buy more ram (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, that stick of RAM can fuck up the computer that the IT department will then have to fix or replace. In car analogy terms: you wouldn't bolt on a turbo kit on a company car just because you thought it wasn't fast enough, would you?
Of course that's not as bad as running a rouge server like that guy in the hospital, but it's also not as bad as Hitler, so I'm not sure what's the point of making such comparisons.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Buy more ram (Score:4, Insightful)
No, a stick of RAM will *NOT* fuck up their ANCIENT piece of shit GARAGE SALE pc.
And *if* on the OUT OF THIS GALAXY chance it did, they have much bigger issues.
If the machine is damaged somehow during installation, then yes, it will tick off IT.
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Oh man, you have to be trolling, right? Right?
You've obviously never had to troubleshoot issues caused by a bad/mismatched stick of RAM. I feel real bad for the kid in IT who has to investigate why "all of a sudden" this computer is having occasional blue screens, application crashes, or some other symptom which could just as easily be attributed to a dozen different causes. Of course the person who installed the RAM won't own up to it at that point, as the "user" knows what they did is wrong but has probab
Re:Buy more ram (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry Frosty, but you just don't seem to get that the IT department NEEDS to know what is going on with the equipment, regardless of whether it is a brand new shiny system, or an ancient hunk of crap.
If the OP simply gets permission to add RAM, or is lucky enough to convince the IT department to buy and install it, then everyone wins. If he just buys it, and installs it, then everyone loses.
With permission, the OP gets what he needs to function (as long as it is actually necessary, and the function provided is more than to just be able to watch the latest youtube videos), and the IT department knows about the change, so that if something goes wrong with the PC, they can correct it more easily.
The additional benefit is that the IT department can track the expense of bringing the antiquated garbage to a usable condition, and can justify to the bean counters that they need to bring in more new PC's so that the workers (full time, part time, AND interns) can function properly.
If the OP just acquires an additional stick of RAM, then:
1. He's out the cash for the RAM.
2. If the OP doesn't get the exact correct stick of RAM, then odd issues may arise, generating unnecessary expensive trouble tickets. In addition, if the OP doesn't admit that he/she did this, then there are extra steps introduced because the system is no longer what it is documented as... (It just adds extra unnecessary confusion.)
3. The machine works better, but the cost is not accounted for, and it makes it more difficult to justify replacing it, as there is no cost that can be shown to accounting.
Frankly, it just screws up everything if it doesn't go through the IT department.
Once the precedent is set, then you have opened up a can of worms where every intern (and other person in the establishment) thinks it's okay to change out system parts to suit their fancy. Bob changes out his video card, Sue adds a blue-ray burner, and Elmo decides that he prefers to use Open Office and Firefox, because if they can change the hardware (and drivers), then why can't he change software?
You end up with a difficult to maintain mess, and the bean counters are wondering how come it is so expensive to run the computers...
(This doesn't even begin to touch on security issues)
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Once the precedent is set, then you have opened up a can of worms where every intern (and other person in the establishment) thinks it's okay to change out system parts to suit their fancy. Bob changes out his video card, Sue adds a blue-ray burner, and Elmo decides that he prefers to use Open Office and Firefox, because if they can change the hardware (and drivers), then why can't he change software?
Don't forget bringing in a copy of Creative Suite 5 that he got from his uncle that bought it in a market in China on vacation last year...
And if just slipping in a a stick is OK, can I borrow your wife? It's not like it will break her or anything...
Re:Buy more ram (Score:5, Insightful)
Nail on the head.
To the OP: If the hardware is *legitimately* too old to support your business needs (not your "slashdot reading" needs), then you should build a case for an upgrade or replacement. To do that, figure out how much they're paying you, and how long you'll be paid for as an intern.
Then calculate how much time you're wasting due to a slow computer. And don't just pull numbers out of your ass. Actually time stuff like bootup/login, load times, etc., and ask a co-worker with a modern system if you can do the same with theirs as a baseline, so you can calculate what portion of that time is actually wasted time due to slow/old/bad hardware.
Then, you make you pitch like so: "I'm spending X minutes per day twiddling my thumbs waiting for something to finish running. You're paying me X dollars an hour. A RAM upgrade would cost X dollars, and reduce my wasted daily time by X%." If the cost of the upgrade is more than the amount of time they're paying you for that's legitimately wasted then no, a RAM upgrade doesn't make sense. If the cost of the upgrade is significantly cheaper than the value of the time they're paying you for that's legitimately wasted, then yes, a RAM upgrade makes a lot of sense.
If you can't get management support, then spending your own money and time is foolish, and is just as likely to be unappreciated & met with hostility as it is to be met with cheers of "Way to take the initiative, old chap!"
Re:Buy more ram (Score:4, Insightful)
Encouraging an intern to approach the corporate world by saying "Hey, since you won't give me the proper tools to do my job, is it okay if I spend my own money (which you're paying me) to purchase my own?" Is doing him no favors. If your company isn't concerned about wasting your time, then you shouldn't be either, and you certainly shouldn't be paying your own money to "help out" your company if they're to cheap to do it themselves.
If you offer it, they will ride you for all you're worth:
"Why don't we just page you using your personal cell phone?" "Great, you can reimburse me a portion of my monthly bill then?" "Oh we can't do that." "Then don't page me on my personal number."
"Why don't you just work from home in the evening?" "Great, will you provide me with the tools and reimburse me for part of my home internet fees?" "Oh we can't do that." "Then I can't work from home."
If you don't set limits on the freeloading your company is allowed to engage in, you're doing yourself a disservice.
Re:Buy more ram (Score:4, Insightful)
In a good company, the extra that you're willing to do pays off very well in the long run. Working an extra 20 hours a week, unpaid for, unasked for, and filling up half a bookcase with texts I bought myself (no company payback) helped take me from about $45000 a year to $105000 a year in 8 years.
Doing the same in a poor company earned me praise and promises and little else. Know your company. Know yourself.
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Re:Buy more ram (Score:5, Funny)
I like my rouge server, but not as much as my teal one.
Re:Buy more ram (Score:4, Funny)
Only whore servers wear so much rouge. Teach your server some proportion.
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Sure, but it should be the company paying for it. Talk to your boss or IT department, suggesting some practical solutions. Part of the reason is that you should see if it is acceptable. You don't want to get burnt for the wrong reasons.
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Nah, if they gave him that comp, they don't have the money... so buy the RAM yourself, get them to install it.
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Anecdotal evidence if that would have been the company I work for:
1) Some department gets interns, the IT department gets a call the day they arrive that they "need a PC now!!!".
2) No clear classification ever on what they need the PC for.
So of course, we have to pull some junker out from somewhere so that they can have one "now", because it is a very bad idea to have new PCs lying around and getting outdated before someone actually request to have one.
When it becomes evident (perhaps through an e-mail to t
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Yes, it is. If you read what he said it was heavily implied the IT Department _don't_ think it's acceptable, but they are likely has hand-tied as he is. The IT Department is responsible for the machine and everything in and on it. Screwing with that without their permission is rude at best.
Now if the company in question has such a small budget for IT (or at least for interns) then their current growth may very well not last long somply given how much time people are waiting for their computers.
Personally, I
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I'm sorry, adding some RAM is going ot tilt the IT Department?
Yes, opening the machine and messing with the internals will annoy IT.
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In other words: Go through proper channels. Duh.
Re:Buy more ram (Score:5, Insightful)
To the OP:
It is not YOUR computer. YOU should not, under any circumstances, upgrade it. People managed to do "real" work just fine a couple years ago when that computer was mainstream.
It's not ONLY a stick of ram. It's an indicator to your employer that you don't understand boundaries, roles, and responsibilities.
Re:Boundaries (Score:2)
I'll see your Boundaries and raise you Initiative.
First of all this is a suspicious (not post, but circumstances why they handed him that comp, when a yard sale could come up with better) setup. So either they hired 20 new peoplein one shot, of course hardware will lag. So since they apparently can't afford more, buy it yourself and let them do the authorized install.
"Interns" are not "temps". Now there's 100 different corp cultures, but "only 100", not 20,000. If they get upset that he spent $100 of his ow
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If they get upset that he spent $100 of his own money on RAM, *that's* the sign they don't care about initative.
Or, it's a sign that they don't want some intern fucking around and modifying company property just because he wants to open ten browser tabs at once.
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It's not ONLY a stick of ram. It's an indicator to your employer that you don't understand boundaries, roles, and responsibilities.
Wow, I'm glad I don't work at your company. I've been blessed with a sane IT guy where I work. When I said I needed a Linux desktop, he got me a bare PC, handed it over to me and said, "Your on your own". We get along great.
Re:Buy more ram (Score:5, Insightful)
WTF?
I worked for a community college that didn't have shit for money. I brought in my own printer/scanner, asked IT to load drivers which they were happy to do, and emphasized I didn't need any support and would be delighted to be whatever their idea of a good customer was. (That's a drastic change from the snivelling and venting they usually dealt with.)
IT was happy, my boss was happy (he didn't have a scanner), and I could print without disturbing anyone else. The boss authorized buying ink cartridges since all printing was work-related.
You can get lots of things done by ASKING NICELY. Fucking customer skills aren't rocket science. Offering to give the job free stuff to improve PRODUCTIVITY works fine and shows initiative.
I did the same thing as an NCO in the Air Force. It got shit done, it was cheap (I get more gear than I need for free since I fix PCs on the side), and it lightens the workload for other people.
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To the OP:
It is not YOUR computer. YOU should not, under any circumstances, upgrade it.
Cogent and on point.
People managed to do "real" work just fine a couple years ago when that computer was mainstream.
Fail.
People managed to do "real" work just fine, a couple of years ago, before Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 3. THEN, a half-gig of RAM was enough to let you run Firefox (or any other reasonably-resource-intensive application) at reasonable speed. NOW, it's not, because SP3 increased Windows XP's minimum RAM requirement to the point that not only Firefox, but EVERY reasonably-resource-intensive application ends up RAM-starved, and, as a consequence, the system constantly has
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What does the color of the server have to do with anything?!
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"Perhaps you have never tried to develop software on a machine that can't run the IDE without swapping."
vi doesn't swap that much.
If you need some sort of fancy GUI program then nedit or gedit ought to do the trick too...
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What I don't understand is how a company can be expanding "so fast" that they can afford at least £15,000 on an employee, but not £300 on a bargain basement machine, or hell... £1,000 on a machine they'll actually be productive on.
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As we don't know what it is that he is doing we don't know that the machine he has is not adequate for it.
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I've tried a lot of optimization software over the years, but this is the one I've found that actually works as advertised: Advanced SystemCare 4 [iobit.com]
But, the thing is that in a corporate environment you're not likely to be allowed to install RAM or programs to deal with optimization. The best bet would be to prepare a report on how much time the OP is wasting waiting for the computer to respond and relate that to the cost of upgrading the hardware. That's really the best way of handling it in a business enviro
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You shouldn't need to purchase software to optimize your PC when it really is as simple as firing up MSCONFIG to disable services and apps that you don't need running in the background.
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There is a free version which does quite well. But it does a lot more than just that. Plus, yes you can do all of that stuff by hand, however, unless you really have time to kill and are willing to spend a lot of time on tinkering, the cost of the paid version is likely less than the amount of time you'd spend researching it.
And, personally, I'm too lazy to bother constantly adjusting things like that and making sure to do the maintenance to keep things running well. Hence why apps like this exist. It's def
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Anyone who needs an optimization guide can just go to Black Viper's site. I actually reference back to him sometimes. He's pretty much got it all, no need to pay a single dime to some dummy who will likely mess things up for you.
Re:Use less RAM (Score:4, Informative)
You can also configure Firefox not to cache rendered pages in RAM.
But Arora might be the browser you're looking for.
http://code.google.com/p/arora/ [google.com]
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> Try to disable as many services or daemons as you can to free up RAM. In the Microsoft world,
Uh, MSCONFIG is a band-aid "solution" (although a fast partial one. :-) One really should be disabling all non essential services.
e.g. and scroll down, set Show entries to 100, and use the "SAFE" or "Tweaked" column ...
http://www.blackviper.com/2008/05/19/black-vipers-windows-xp-x86-32-bit-service-pack-3-service-configurations/ [blackviper.com]
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It's not expensive and if you get worth out of the investment it's a good thing all the way around.
Those machine specs are decent for a general office computer running Office 2003. If you want more bang out of it, hit eBay and double the ram for pretty cheap. XP really improves with 1-gig of ram. Of course Firefox still being a memory hog is still a separate issue.
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I wound up doing this in early '07 before my last upgrade, with leftover parts from when I upgraded my personal PC. Socket-A Athlon 2600+ and a gig of DDR was a heck of a lot better than the 1.5 GHz P4 with 512MB of Rambus work had issued me.
OP is probably young enough to not have a stock of computer parts, though.
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There was one company I brought in my own portable, asking permission first, for this reason. The IT dept said they would let it slide, but wouldn't support it. Since they weren't really supporting developer desktops anyhow I went ahead and took the risk. Ironically it did reveal some limitations in the software we were developing, so I provided a fix to deal with it.
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More and more companies are allowing employees to use their personal hardware on their network.
You might be better off asking if you can bring in your own laptop, so long as you run their anti-virus, etc.
$150 (Score:2)
What version of IE? (Score:2)
To answer you q.. IE <cough>
Internet Explorer 9 requires 1 GB of RAM because it requires an operating system that won't run well with less. Or are you recommending using Internet Explorer 8?
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Plus it runs in XFCE, so you're set for a lightweight environment.
Considering the computer is provided by the company, It most likely runs windows. I doubt IT would look kindly to wiping it and installing some form of Linux to run XFCE.
Yes, I know Midori does run on Windows.
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I'm having trouble logging in to slashdot with Midori on Windows.
That can't be promising for either usability (Maybe I am missing a setting) or the browser itself.
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Hmm, I'll have to try that. I'm migrating away from XP, but this sounds like just the thing for those times when I need to use a Win only app which doesn't run under Crossover. At this point, I pretty much am only using XP until I can finish my last set of backups, and install Linux.
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I doubt TinyXP could join a domain and work in an enterprise environment.
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"The really big problem is, when something does end up not working it's harder to figure out what's causing it to break and impossible to fix without reinstalling the OS."
So... it's just like regular Windows?
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Theres no reason any company needs to shove 10 year old hardware on an intern. You call up Dell or whoever, say you need a thousand PCs and they will bring it out.
Nor is there any reason why they need interns, just just need to post a help-wanted add and a thousand people will send their resume.
There's just the small matter of funding - when you get a real job in the real world, you'll find that unbudgeted capital expenditures and adding headcount take more than a phone call to a vendor to resolve.
Re: (Score:2)
These days I'd recommend rekonq or arora for Konqueror fans.
Re:Operating system (Score:4, Interesting)
I too am running Firefox 3.6 on Debian Squeeze, but with 3gigs of RAM. I have FlashBlock and BetterPrivacy installed, but not NoScript. With only 20 tabs open I have to restart firefox at least once a week or my computer will grind to a halt. It seems to work like this:
Firefox: Hmm, there's still memory available, I'll hold more pages in memory.
Linux: Crap memory is getting tight, I should move some of this to swap.
Firefox: Hey look there's more memory available now, I'll hold more sites in memory.
And so on, until everything but firefox is pushed out to swap.