eclispe 3.0 too slow on linux

[kem1]

hi, i am using eclipse 3.0 on RedHat 9 nad it's a bit slow - my
machine is PIII 900 with 384MB RAM. I use KDE 3.1-12 and when eclipse
loads all the physical memory is gone. i have Win 2000 on the other
partition and the performance is a lot better even when i start jboss
on top of eclipse. I tried with 512MB ram and there was no improvement
in the linux environment. So, question is do i have to downgrade to
lower distro or change the linux distr (i'm not biased to RH). Or just
my CPU is not fast enough as Eclipse gives better performance on
Windows than on linux OS. Any advice or opinion appreciated.

-thnx

p.s. i tried both motif and gtk. motif looked to me a bit better on
the performance ascpect (gtk has nicer look)

 

[Berlin Brown]

hi, i am using eclipse 3.0 on RedHat 9 nad it's a bit slow - my
machine is PIII 900 with 384MB RAM. I use KDE 3.1-12 and when eclipse
loads all the physical memory is gone. i have Win 2000 on the other
partition and the performance is a lot better even when i start jboss
on top of eclipse. I tried with 512MB ram and there was no improvement
in the linux environment. So, question is do i have to downgrade to
lower distro or change the linux distr (i'm not biased to RH). Or just
my CPU is not fast enough as Eclipse gives better performance on
Windows than on linux OS. Any advice or opinion appreciated.

-thnx

p.s. i tried both motif and gtk. motif looked to me a bit better on
the performance ascpect (gtk has nicer look)

I like mandrake, I use both 8.2 and 9.1, both pretty fast. I used to be
a Redhat fan too, it got way too bloated, too slow. Debian or slackware
will probably be the fastest, but for the life of me I cant figure how
to install them.

 

[Kristoffel]

hi, i am using eclipse 3.0 on RedHat 9 nad it's a bit slow - my
machine is PIII 900 with 384MB RAM. I use KDE 3.1-12 and when eclipse
loads all the physical memory is gone. i have Win 2000 on the other
partition and the performance is a lot better even when i start jboss
on top of eclipse. I tried with 512MB ram and there was no improvement
in the linux environment. So, question is do i have to downgrade to
lower distro or change the linux distr (i'm not biased to RH). Or just
my CPU is not fast enough as Eclipse gives better performance on
Windows than on linux OS. Any advice or opinion appreciated.

-thnx

p.s. i tried both motif and gtk. motif looked to me a bit better on
the performance ascpect (gtk has nicer look)

RedHat is OK, but KDE 3.1 is slow (for most java applications).
WindowMaker is faster.

K

 

[Sudsy]

hi, i am using eclipse 3.0 on RedHat 9 nad it's a bit slow - my
machine is PIII 900 with 384MB RAM. I use KDE 3.1-12 and when eclipse
loads all the physical memory is gone. i have Win 2000 on the other
partition and the performance is a lot better even when i start jboss
on top of eclipse. I tried with 512MB ram and there was no improvement
in the linux environment. So, question is do i have to downgrade to
lower distro or change the linux distr (i'm not biased to RH). Or just
my CPU is not fast enough as Eclipse gives better performance on
Windows than on linux OS. Any advice or opinion appreciated.

I believe that you're memory-constrained. One quick way to check would
be to run top and check memory utilization stats. Eclipse works just
fine on my RedHat platform, but then I've got 768 MB of RAM and the
processor is an AMD XP1800+...

 

[Jon A. Cruz]

RedHat is OK, but KDE 3.1 is slow (for most java applications).
WindowMaker is faster.

RedHat is a distribution.
KDE is a desktop.
WindowMaker is a Window Manager.

Three different things that don't compare so directly. For example, by
default RedHat allows the user to install a "KDE Desktop" or a "GNOME
Desktop".

Also, though KDE is made to run only with KDE's window manager, one can
easily switch the window manager being used by GNOME. IIRC, WindowMaker
can even be used with it.

 

[Kristoffel]

RedHat is a distribution.
KDE is a desktop.
WindowMaker is a Window Manager.

Three different things that don't compare so directly. For example, by
default RedHat allows the user to install a "KDE Desktop" or a "GNOME
Desktop".

Also, though KDE is made to run only with KDE's window manager, one can
easily switch the window manager being used by GNOME. IIRC, WindowMaker
can even be used with it.

I think that you can start WindowMaker directly from the loginscreen of
RedHat 9 and without starting "KDE Desktop" or "GNOME Desktop".

If you start WindowMaker from the loginscreen, (java-)applications as
Eclipse, OpenOffice, Netbeans, ... are faster (but slower then NT
Windows2000).

 

[Jean Lutrin]

hi, i am using eclipse 3.0 on RedHat 9 nad it's a bit slow

(snip)

Hi,

first of all, maybe 384 Mo is not enough for Eclipse + KDE...
Is it out of question to add 256 or 512 Mo in the computer !?
(when I switched from 256 to 512 I really noticed a difference)

I develop under Linux only, using a Red Hat 9 distro, slightly
modified :

- I use a kernel from Fedora Core 1 (2.4.22-1 as opposed
to the "stock" Red Hat 9 kernel which is 2.4.20-8). This more
recent kernel fixed some strange occasional 2 to 3 seconds lockups
I had.

- I use the Gnome desktop, with the default gnome window manager
that Red Hat installs (metacity I think)... But I "removed" Nautilus.

I have a P4 with only 512 Mo (I don't consider it to be that much
since Ram are so cheap nowadays).

The machine has constantly running :

Mozilla
Sylpheed (email client, with nearly 4.000 emails in my Inbox now)
IntelliJ IDEA (Java 1.4.2_01 and IntelliJ 3.0.4)
Countless virtual terminals (gnome-terminal)

And sometimes I "xhost" a X Window session for another developer, who
has a slower computer, that he uses as a "graphical terminal".

Even with so many tasks running, I can barely hear the hard disk working,
there's nearly no swapping going on...

The developer sitting next to me as the exact same machine as mine,
running Windows XP : his system is way slower than mine and you can
hear is hard disk working constantly. He is considering switching
to Linux now...

Anyway, I think you have several "problems" :

- KDE is heavier than Gnome
- 384 Mo ram is borderline for KDE + Eclipse
- Eclipse under Linux is kind of slow, for a reason I don't
get (for example, IntelliJ IDEA, which is a Swing app, is really
fast under Linux...).

I used to work with Eclipse, under Linux, and it wasn't that great : Eclipse
was actually faster under Windows. Don't get me wrong : I like Eclipse. If you
ask me the two favorites IDE I would use to do Java development I'd answer
IntelliJ first than Eclipse second (and I tried several others).

Try to use one of the latest kernel from Fedora Core 1 (stay with 2.4 kernels) :
they tend to be a little faster and less buggy (I don't say stock RH9 kernel
is buggy, but for me switching to newer kernel fixed some bugs).

Try switching KDE for a "bare" Gnome (I prevent Nautilus from starting
when Gnome loads up : you really feel the difference... And if you really
need Nautilus you can still lauch it, say, from the command line).

If the improvment is not enough, buy more ram (if you can add ram to the
computer and have enough money).

If it's still not fast enough : you don't have many other options

Buy/ask your boss/department a faster computer or buy IntelliJ if you've
nothing particular against "non Open Source" software.

IntelliJ is really that much better : I don't know a single developer
who switched from IntelliJ to Eclipse... while I know several who
switched from Eclipse to IntelliJ (now, of course, there may be a
few exceptions).

Good luck fixing your problem,

Jean


P.S. : I'll switch back to Eclipse if/when it catches up IntelliJ and
when there will be good JSP support (all the plugins I tried "back in
the days" where not very good...).

 

[Jon A. Cruz]

I think that you can start WindowMaker directly from the loginscreen of
RedHat 9 and without starting "KDE Desktop" or "GNOME Desktop".

Depends on your configuration.



For me, the loginscreen is plain text. I get no graphics till after I
login and choose what to do.

If you start WindowMaker from the loginscreen, (java-)applications as
Eclipse, OpenOffice, Netbeans, ... are faster (but slower then NT
Windows2000).

Have you compared that to running Java applications from a GNOME desktop
after having switched it's window manager from whatever it happens to be
(sawfish, metacity, etc) to WindowMaker?

 

[Jon Skeet]

hi, i am using eclipse 3.0 on RedHat 9 nad it's a bit slow

Eclipse 3.0 isn't out yet, which means you're presumably using one of
the milestone releases. I believe 3.0-M6 was particularly slow - if
you're using that, you might want to try one of the more recent ones.

 

[Kristoffel]

Have you compared that to running Java applications from a GNOME desktop
after having switched it's window manager from whatever it happens to be
(sawfish, metacity, etc) to WindowMaker?

No, I never launch the GNOME desktop. GNOME is not installed, I have
only KDE and WindowMaker.
From the login screen, I launch the session 'failsafe', and then I
launch 'wmaker' (I know that you can configure it so that you can start
it directly from the loginscreen in).
Starting java application (eclipse, netbeans, OpenOffice, ...) with only
WindowMaker is at least three three faster then "KDE 3.1".

 

[Davor Cengija]

Eclipse 3.0 isn't out yet, which means you're presumably using one of
the milestone releases. I believe 3.0-M6 was particularly slow - if
you're using that, you might want to try one of the more recent ones.

I just tried 3.0-M7 gtk2 version and it is as fast/slow (depending on your
optimism level) as WSAD 2.1 (which is actually Eclipse 2.1 + add-ons), also
gtk2. My machine is P3/500MHz, 512MB RAM, Mandrake 9.2 and default KDE.

So, the original poster might want to try that release.

 

[Jon A. Cruz]

No, I never launch the GNOME desktop. GNOME is not installed, I have
only KDE and WindowMaker.

Ahh. There's a lot of the problem.

Starting java application (eclipse, netbeans, OpenOffice, ...) with only
WindowMaker is at least three three faster then "KDE 3.1".

Of course. Since you're not running the whole suite of programs known as
the KDE desktop environment. Also, KDE has it's own full-featured window
manager (kwin) that you can't easily switch out. GNOME allows for
switching the window manager from the different settings places.

You could look into switching things out through maybe manually editing
startup scripts or manually killing processes.

Or you could try running top to see what's taking up your CPU.

 

[Mike Nishizawa]

Try JEdit. It takes a bit of time to configure, but once your
configured it's a solid environment and very fast.