So my computer was running really fuckin' slow for the last couple o' months. Very atypical for Linux. I've been using Fedora for 5 years now, and never had this problem. I would often make fun of family and friends for using slow ass windows, so I was embarrassed when my shit began exhibiting a slowness condition that was worse than anything I experienced in windows.
First I thought the CPU fan was not working 'cause when I hit it with canned air, a bunch of dust came out. Unfortunately, it still ran slow, stopped responding, slow to wake from suspend, hard drive light blinking so fast you'd swear it was on steady, you name it.
Today, while looking for a reason why Fedora 19 would be running slow, I found this guys blog: http://www.happyassassin.net. This guy writes stuff about Linux and tech support issues everyday. An article in his blog introduced me to a Linux command I had not heard of before:
top
This command shows, in real time, running system processes and what resources they are consuming. The blog article was for a process that he had experienced giving people problems. The process he mentioned in his article wasn't giving me problems, however, when I ran [top] I found a process that was hogging more than 5 times the resources that the second highest hog was.
It was Chrome! Firefox is the default browser for Fedora, as well as many other Linux distros, but I don't use it because Chrome takes up less screen real estate and is cleaner looking. Plus I use Google for web stuff, so it's kinda fitting to use a Google browser.
I usually use Chromium on Fedora, but upon installing Fedora 19 I decided I didn't care too much to install mostly FOSS stuff. Now, to be clear, I'm no Linux guru. I'm sure there may have been something I could have reconfigured to make Chrome run better, but Chrome was scoring 2200000 in the VIRT column, and the second highest was only scoring 410000.
Anyway, I removed Chrome, and put Chromium on, and now the highest resources is scoring 350000, and my shit is blazing fast again.
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