This page lists some optimizations you can make to Ubuntu, to get it running as fast as possible.
TODO: This page isn't done.
Services
A service is a special type of program that runs in the background, and does things behind the scenes. You don't have to manually start a service, Linux will start it up for you automatically, so that it will always be running when you need it. For example, there are a couple of services which are used for scheduling tasks — anacron and atd. If you'd like a certain program to run every day at a particular time, you can schedule it with one of these applications, and it will happen automatically. In order for this to happen, the services have to be running, which is why the operating system starts them automatically.
Of course, you may not actually use all of the services which are run automatically, which means that they're using up resources that you could be using for something else! So one of the first things you can do to optimize Ubuntu is configure which services will run, when it starts up. Go to System->Administration->Services, which will show you all of the services that you can have running. If you disable any of the services that you don't use, you can free up some resources. e.g. if your computer doesn't have any Bluetooth capability, or you just don't use Bluetooth, you can disable any services to do with Bluetooth.
Services to Disable
The only service I disable is the Bluetooth Device Management, since I don't have any Bluetooth hardware installed.
Services to Enable
TODO
hdparm
TODO
Tweaking Firefox
For most users, making these settings will cause Firefox to load websites faster.
- Open Firefox, and in the Address bar, type about:config. This will open up a page with a number of configurations you can make to the browser.
- In the Filter box, type network, to narrow the range of options you have to deal with.
- Change the following settings:
- Set network.dns.disableIPv6 to true
- Set network.http.pipelining to true
- Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to 8
- Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true
You might want to keep an eye on your browsing speed, and, if these settings don't make any difference — or make things slower — you can go and change them back.
