Linux desktop sluggish over time

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Marc Lanctot <lanctot-yfeSBMgouQgsA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org>

| I notice that over time Linux desktops I use tend to get sluggish.

I have not noticed this.  I leave my Fedora 10 desktop up for weeks.
Except recently: I install updates that make me want to reboot more
often than that.

I do leave Firefox on for long periods.  It has leaks and gets slower.
Luckily it also has bugs: crashes let it start over again.

Just for fun, I leave Gnome's "system monitor" on my panel.  It can show 
lots of stuff.

It would be good to find out what your system's problem is.

If it is userland CPU usage, top(1) should tell you.

If it is kernel CPU usage, that is trickier.  Consider running a known
finite CPU hog task when things are good to find out the real time it
takes.  Then try it again when things are sluggissh.

If it is memory usage, the top(1) command letter "M" sorts the task
list by %MEM.  The %RES column is probably interesting.

If it is network traffic, study why.  tcpdump(8) is a brute force
tool.  There are many others (i.e. I don't have any recommentations).
Maybe netstat(8).

It could be disk I/O.  I don't know how to tell which process is
responsible.
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