Joris,
Unfortunately, Linux is usually the slowest and least-stable operating
system for OpenGL visualization. Identical hardware often performs
noticably better running under Windows XP (and nowadays, Mac OS X). I've
seen up to 3X better performance on proprietary OSes. But that is not
Linux's fault, nor is it a failing of the open-source approach per se.
The reason lies in the proprietary vendor-provided graphics drivers, which
are not optimized & maintained as well for Linux as they are for the
proprietary operating systems that dominate this market. Given the
highly-competitive nature of the graphics hardware busines, it is not
reasonable to expect graphics card vendors to openly reveal the specifics of
their latest hardware so as to enable development of robust and timely
open-source drivers. There is no good solution in sight for this
longstanding and very serious problem with Linux. In fact, we are lucky the
vendors support the OS at all, given its pitiful desktop marketshare.
That being said, you should confirm that your Redhat PC does in fact have
the latest proprietary OpenGL drivers installed. They usually can't be
included with Linux itself because of the kernel's self-defeating GPL
licensing rules ("Stallman's Revenge").
Despite the fact that Apple, Inc., now seems hell-bent on becoming a
consumer electronics & media company, their (legacy?) Mac CPU line(^) is
still, in my opinion, the optimum combination of robust open-source code
(Darwin/GNU/X11), a well-maintained hybrid (OSS/CSS) software stack, and
fully-integrated proprietary hardware. So get 'em while they last before
the whole company switches over to making those damn illicit iPhones(*)!
Right now, I would only buy a straight Linux desktop for ideological rather
than practical reasons. If you instead buy a Mac "Pro", you get the ability
to run all three operating systems simultaneously, at native CPU speeds, and
on an as-needed basis thanks to virtualization. Right now, Mac is the best
way to go for desktop or for laptop.
For example, I am currently emailing from native Outlook 2003 running under
Windows XP inside Parallels under Mac OS X Tiger on a Intel-based MacBook
Pro, which also happily runs Vista and SUSE. Surreal!
Cheers,
Warren
(^) Mac CPUs sales accounted for only 34% of revenue this last quarter, vs.
57% for iPods & music -- EGADS! Mac revenue share could fall below 20% over
the next several years if folks don't start buying them in higher volumes...
(*) iPhone is a registered Trademark of Linksys, a division of Cisco
Systems, Inc.
For more on the Linux graphics driver "no win" situation, see
<http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6061491.html>
-----Original Message-----
From: pymol-users-boun...@lists.sourceforge.net
[mailto:pymol-users-boun...@lists.sourceforge.net] On Behalf Of Joris Beld
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 6:46 AM
To: PyMOL-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: [PyMOL] pymol slow on linux PC
Dear people,
We have a rather (half a year) new (AMD64-3700, 2GB RAM, FX1400 running
Redhat/Gnome) PC and people complain that pymol on our four year old office
PCs (Pentium, on board graphic card, 256MB RAM) is faster in displaying
large protein structures (even at same resolution). How could this happen? I
used the precompiled linux binaries for pymol. Any suggestions? (of course
we have the Linux machine for 3D modeling with 3D glasses...which we cannot
do on the standard PCs (with flatscreens) but still...I'm kinda curious
where this difference could come from).
Thanks in advance.
Best,
Joris Beld
Hilvert Group
ETH Zürich
Switzerland
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