Speed up application load time in Ubuntu Linux Hardy Heron using prelink: HOWTO and benchmarks

I’ve used prelink in the past on Ubuntu in an attempt to speed up application loading, but I’ve never actually done any benchmarks to test the results.  I decided today to run some simple benchmarks to gauge the performance increase of using prelink.

For readers too lazy to read through the entire article, I will summarize by saying that using prelink does reduce application load time.

Read about prelink and what it does on Wikipedia.  Explaining it is beyond the scope of this article.

Testing methodology:

1. Reboot
2. Load several large programs using “time $program”, then close the program as quickly as possible.  Record the real time.  Wash, rinse, reboot, and repeat two times, then average the results.
3. Install prelink, and run /etc/cron.daily/prelink
4. Reboot, and repeat all tests

Programs that will be used for testing:

• OpenOffice.org 2.4 Writer
• Firefox 3.0
• Azureus BitTorrent Client
• Tremulous
• Evolution Mail Client
• GIMP

Testbed:

• Intel 915GEV motherboard with 3.0ghz Pentium 4 1024k cache
• 3gb dual channel DDR2
• 2x Maxtor 80gb SATA drives in software RAID 0 array, XFS filesystem

First, the results without prelink:

Now, I will install prelink, take the system down to single user mode, run the intial prelink session, and reboot:

# sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install prelink
# sudo init 1
# sudo /etc/cron.daily/prelink
# sudo reboot

Now that prelink has run, it’s time to run the benchmarks again and check the results!

Conclusion

These benchmarks clearly show that prelink generates a measurable performance improvement in application load time.  Considering that the time needed to install and configure prelink is minimal, and the gains are obviously very real, it logically follows that using prelink is A Good Idea.

0.63 seconds may not seem like very much time saved, but consider if you launched OpenOffice five times a day.  That’s 3.15 seconds a day.  Six days a week that comes to 18.9 seconds a week.  That’s 982.8 seconds a year.  9828 seconds over ten years.  Etc, etc.  It adds up.

I’m saving lives here! Somebody pin a medal on me.

Video Post: Star Wars according to a three year old

This has been around awhile, but I’m sure some people haven’t seen it yet. It’s way too cute.

This wildly popular video has prompted many video replies, among them “Star Wars according to a (twenty) three year old.

Another version with clips from the movie inserted:

Watch these Free Full Length Feature Films on Google Video

I am full of pop culture references. When I am talking with someone on an instant message program or Skype, as the conversation continues, the probability of me pasting a link to an appropriate image or video approaches one.

Yesterday I was talking with Darin on MSN about chicken flavored soy patties, and used google to search for the final scene from the movie Soylent Green.

I was surprised when I found not only the scene from the movie that I was looking for, but the entire movie on Google Video!

Other full length movies uploaded by the same user:

• 1984 (wikipedia imdb)
• Animal Farm (wikipedia imdb)
• Super Size Me (wikipedia imdb)
• This Film Is Not Yet Rated (wikipedia imdb)
• Soylent Green (wikipedia imdb)

There are several others too, click the “More from this user” button to see them all.

I’m not sure why these are on Google Video like this. I guess the people that own the rights to these movies don’t care about them being broadcasted like this perhaps? Two of them are independent films. And the others are there because the copyright holders don’t mind? Soylent Green and 1984 are both over twenty years old.

What do you think?

June Blog Promotion: Win a 22″ Dell LCD Monitor!!

John Chow sometimes gives away cool schwag on his website. Sometimes gimicky things like a combination pen and USB flash drive, and sometimes very big and expensive items. I think contests like this are a very cool idea, so I’m going to try some of my own!

My crazy thinking here, is that by giving away something awesome, I will:

• Generate lots of buzz
• Generate quality backlinks from other blogs
• Get people talking
  
• Increase advertising revenues enough to pay for the promotion and then some
• Have lots of fun
  

I’m planning to give away something cool at least once a month, maybe more often, and I’m going to start with a bang.

I’m going to give away something big.

Big as in a huge twenty-two inches of hip, high definition hotness!

I’ve had a Dell E228WFPs on my desk for awhile now, and it works great.

Everyone knows two heads are better than one though, so I added a second, for a total desktop resolution of 3360×1080 pixels!

(Windows XP in a fullscreen VirtualBox instance on the left, Ubuntu on the right.)

I have one more sitting unused, and more on the way from my Dell contact, so I’m giving one away!

Quick specs:

• Dell E228WFP
  
• 1680×1050 resolution
• 5ms response time
• 800:1 contrast ratio

Want one? Here’s how to enter!

• Just click the “comment” button at the top and leave a comment saying you want to enter for 1 entry
• Write about this giveaway on your blog or website, send me a pingback and email me the link for 5 entries
• Tweet about this on Twitter and send me the link for 2 entries

Entries will be accepted until June 30th at 12 noon EST.

Fine print: Winner will be chosen by random.org random number generator. I reserve the right to charge actual shipping and / or insurance. As long as it’s not too pricey I will pick up the bill for shipping. International entries are welcome, but may be subject to shipping charge. The customs declaration will show the item marked as a gift, and the street value of $225. You will be responsible for any fees, taxes, etc in your locality. 2nd place winner will receive ONE INTERNET.

Blog Income Report - May 2008

This is an absolutely blatant ripoff of John Chow’s monthly income reports. John’s monthly income reports are consistently the most popular posts on his site.  One of the main reasons I started this site was to see how much income I could generate from a personal blog.  So, without further ado, I give you, the first Quintin Riis dot com monthly income report!

• AzoogleAds: $88.55
• Google Adsense: $5.94

Grand Total: $94.99

Not much, but it more than covers the hosting costs for my server.

Several days ago I was thinking about income goals for the month of June.  At first, I thought I wanted to double May’s total.

Then just now I decided I wanted to treble it.

But that’s child’s play!

My June 2008 advertising revenue goal is five times May’s total, or $472.45.

Should be easy, right?