For the Experimentally-Minded Linux Kernel User

Get Better Linux Desktop Performance With Ulatencyd.

-- Tom

 

I'm skeptical before even clicking the link.

IMHO the biggest latency source on recent machines is disk I/O, by far and away - even the fastest desktop hard disks cannot keep up with RAM.

CPU wait definitely can matter on slow computers (netbooks, Pentium III and earlier desktops, etc.). The problem there is simple - too much code. You can do all kinds of stupid tricks (root cron jobs to increase Xorg's priority, wrapper scripts to nice Firefox so it doesn't stall your system, etc. - I've tried several). But at the end of the day, the issue is that the application requirements have gotten too huge.

(People wanted streaming megapixel video, and they got streaming megapixel video... And now their hard-won old desktops are worth $15 a piece, and can't even render half the stuff on the web. Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.)