Processor requirement

D

dglwilson

I tried to install the 12.1 version of FreeBSD using Gnome in an old machine with a Core2 Dual Core processor and 2 GB of ram. It turned out that when I load Firefox or some other browser, the processor usage goes to around 100%, making the usage of the computer very difficult. Would there be a need for a more powerful processor or is there something wrong with my installation?
 
Welcome to the forums!

The RAM *may* not be enough if you want to run GNOME and the latest version of a modern browser with a gazillion number of tabs and still be able to do a few other things; it will start swapping to disk very soon.

But other than that you should be fine. The problem you're having is something else.

You haven't mentioned what other browser you've tried. And it's not clear what process(es) is/are using the 100%? The browser? Some GNOME component when running the browser? Something else?

Run top to find out.
 
Gnome is the most resource intensive of all available desktop environments in the open source world. Choose ANYTHING but Gnome for older equipment. Xfce4 would be good, Mate` would be good, or just a window manager.
 
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I have a couple of Core 2 Duos and a Pentium D (early dual core). All are 3+ GHz.

I can run a Chromium based browser just fine. Some video apps like zoom don't work well. If you can, run more than 2G ram. I use jwm.

These are mainly servers so running X is low priority.

Do install the appropriate video drivers to gain a modest amount of acceleration.
 
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