> As others have pointed out, the major bottle neck lies with M/board and > RAM performance - the machines just cannot throughput the volumes of > data that X generates fast enough to remain as snappy as OS 9 in a > situation where you have multiple apps running there fore adding to the > system heap and RAM usage.
Multiple apps aren't likely to be the problem: the multitasking is very efficient and computation-bound programs get downgraded so they don't get in the way of interactive use. But if you only have 352M of RAM that's more likely your problem. I would say that OS X really needs that much RAM for light work. If you're running anything heavy you really need well over 512M. Run one of the memory monitors that alerts you to paging activity and you'll see what I mean. But multitasking? People keep talking about it as if that's hard on the computer... it isn't. A well designed multitasking OS will make *everything* faster and more responsive, so long as you have enough RAM hold your "working set"... the pages of memory that are actually in active use. I've got a NeXTstation and it provides comparable responsiveness to Mac OS X, though admittedly with far less elegant graphics, on a machine that's got almost identical specs to a Performa 475: same CPU, a little less RAM, a slightly faster disk... it's even about the same shape... The big thing that slows OS X down is the graphics: the lush user interface chews through CPU time and eats up huge chunks of RAM. I call the resulting performance hit "Quartz Lag". With the old NeXT user interface, OS X would be faster than OS 9 on the same hardware. I sometimes wonder if Apple didn't do that deliberately: after all, how would they sell new Macs if OS X on a 7600 was faster than OS 9? > I think I can still find an SE30, had to part with IIci recently to so > 40mhz is fast.... I have an SE30. I'm trying to get A/UX on it, but it's not cooperating. The oldest Mac I currently own is a Mac II. Not lc or si, just plain old II. The oldest computer I own is a PDP-11. It's loaded. 256k RAM! -- Unsupported OS X is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Unsupported OS X list info <http://lowendmac.com/lists/unsupported.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive <http://www.mail-archive.com/unsupportedosx%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
