Help with firefox, icons in Gutsy

[NoOp]

On 02/24/2008 09:13 AM, Scott R. Ehrlich wrote:
> My parents have an of-the-shelf P3 system (I put it together for
> them) dualboot WinXP and Ubuntu Gutsy.   I'm trying to get them to
> migrate completely to Gutsy, and they are almost ready to try it, but
> they pointed out some things I can't resolve yet -
> 
> I gave them gnome, as it is closest to WinXP's layout -

You do know that you can put the Applications/Logoff/on etc down in the
lower left panel, just like WinXP right? Right-click on the bottom
panel, click 'Add to panel', scroll down to 'Utilities' and add "Main
Menu". Then move the clock/calendar down to the lower right, delete or
allow hide on the top panel & off you go :-) I prefer having folks learn
the advantages of Gnome panels, but in some cases you just need to
improvise a little...

> 
> - When starting firefox, the browser opens, but the mouse
> pointer/pinwheel remains active for about 10 more seconds, then
> returns to a pointer.   Is firefox that power-hungry now it needs a
> little more time to load? Firefox in Windows works instantly.   Not
> sure of other apps also experience this delay.

It works "instantly" in Windows because Windows keeps pieces of it in
the Prefetch directory (/windows/prefetch), so portions of it get loaded
at boot time. Delete all instances of FF in the prefetch directory and
memory, and then start it & see how fast it starts. See:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/01/12/XPKernel/default.aspx
[Prefetch] for more info.

This is not the case in Ubuntu. The first time that you bring up FF it
is being loaded from scratch. However, similar to the Windows prefetch,
Ubuntu will keep some bits of FF, only in memory instead of on disk, for
some amount of time (15 minutes I think). Close FF and open again --
instant open, right?

So, why doesn't Ubuntu do the same as Windows & keep pieces of formerly
run programs on disk so they start fast after boot? Well, I don't know
why, but my guess would be that linux is a true multi-user, multi-app
OS, and if it did something similar you'd possibly have to keep
thousands of prefetch bits on disk.

> 
> - I want to change the OpenOffice Word Processor icon to Microsoft's
> W (for word - I have a W .jpeg).  I've done google searching, and
> none of the Launcher options or properties of OO permit me to change
> its icon. What am I missing?

Tell them that OOo is the "new & improved" version. Just change the text
label & they'll be fine.

> 
> I would hate to see Windows XP with Service Pack 2 outperform Ubuntu
> and have my parents disuaded from using it because of these "flaws".
> 

The "flaws" are in the mind of the uninformed.