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Idea #23356: Speed app load time with preload

Written by ssam the 17 Jan 10 at 16:07. Category: System. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
Linux caches disk reads, which means applications start much faster the second time you load them (if you have not rebooted, or flushed the cache since the first time). This speed boost can be given to first runs by having a daemon read application files to keep them in the cache.
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80
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Solution #1: Install preload by default
Written by ssam the 17 Jan 10 at 16:07.
Preload is an advanced precaching daemon. It monitors which applications are used often. It checks how much free memory there is so that it does not compete for resources.

On a machine with some spare RAM, it will speed up application loading. On a machine that it is short on RAM it will have no negative effects.

It should be installed by default. it is already on about 2.5% of ubuntu machines according to popcon.
66
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Solution #2: Preference to enable/disable it, off by default on laptops
Written by alhernau the 19 Jan 10 at 09:55.
As it will have some impact on startup time, laptop and netbook users will certainly want to have it off
2
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Solution #3: Button to install
Written by pczahra the 26 Jan 10 at 16:00.
I would go with Solution #2, but as it would be disabled by default and has no secondary value, it doesn't need to be installed by default. It should only be installed on demand when you enable it the first time.
4
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Solution #4: Automatically turned off when on battery power
Written by Nycko the 10 Feb 10 at 11:18.
Improvement on solution #2, enabled by default but disabled when working on battery power.

Users should be able to turn off the caching.

Propose your solution

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Comments
coldReactive wrote on the 18 Jan 10 at 21:22
I have an older machine that I don't plan to give up anytime soon, barely has any spare RAM, and GNOME minimal takes up at least 212 MB on a good day out of my 512 MB of RAM.

ssam wrote on the 18 Jan 10 at 23:27
@coldReactive
then you would benefit. as soon as gnome had loaded, preload would be filling the spare memory with files you needed when you open an application. so you apps will load faster. when apps need memory, that is higher priority than cache, so the caches are dropped.

Ssdg wrote on the 19 Jan 10 at 00:26
Doesn't it use a lot of disk accesses?

ssam wrote on the 19 Jan 10 at 10:09
@Ssdg
It will do a bit extra in the cases that it gets things wrong. when it gets it right it will just be doing the disk access earlier, ie once you have booted it will read the firefox files, then when you start firefox a few minutes later, the files will not need to be read again.

also note that once the files are in the cache it will not be continually rereading them from the disk.

there is a feature request on the site of integration with power management.
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2897172&group_id=1433 98&atid=755423

tntricker wrote on the 25 Jan 10 at 05:16
oh please don't install this by default. It reminds me too much windows vista Prefetch and what a massive resource hog that was. The last thing I need is 3gb of ram being filled with crap I ran last week.

I would rather have Ubuntu cache stuff it knows it's going to use, like icon cache, and system sounds.

ssam wrote on the 28 Jan 10 at 10:59
what is the point of having free memory, when it could be holding cached files?

why do some people think it will slow boot up? its just a back ground process, that runs periodically at low priority.


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