Why is FreeBSD so SLOW?

[Jalle]

Hello FreeBSD friends!

First of all, I just want to say that this mail is not meant to offend 
anyone, and that it is a technical oriented mail, only with a tint of 
"computer theology". I don't wish to start another one of those "holy 
wars"-threads (FreeBSD vs Linux vs Windows kinda), I just wan't to sort 
some stuff out.

I've been using FreeBSD for a few years now and I like the freedom and 
control it gives me. After running it alongside Win2k (which, frankly, is a 
great OS) for several years I finally switched to FreeBSD only, no more 
dual-boot! =o)

Now, everyone says that FreeBSD is supposed to be so fast and reliable. 
Reliable, I fully agree! But fast? No, it's actually much slower on my 
machine than any Windows distro ever was! Sure, only running in text mode 
is fast as hell, but no good for everyday use. I've tried several WMs and 
Desktop Suites, like Enlightenment (e16 and e17), Blackbox, Gnome2, KDE3 
etc. They're great n' all, but as soon as I switch to graphical UI 
everything slows down to a snail's pace! Even a simple terminal is slow.

I've played around with Linux a couple of times, and with several flavors 
(Mandrake, Debian, RedHat, Gentoo), and they where all MUCH faster using a 
graphical interface than FreeBSD!

I have a Pentium III 450 MHz with 320 MB RAM, a SoundBlaster AWE 64 Gold 
and a Matrox G400 MAX video card. I know, this is not top-of-the-line 
hardware, but that doesn't mean that it should run three or four (or more) 
times faster under Linux, right?

So, to the point! I like FreeBSD (I prefer using FBSD before Windows or 
Linux), and I would like to keep using it. But if I can't watch a movie or 
use a decent file manager I will have to switch to Linux. Oh yeah, BTW, is 
there really NO WAY of getting simultaneous sounds in FreeBSD?!? I think 
that's kinda crappy. I mean MS did it, why can't we?

Finally the QUESTION: Why is my FreeBSD box so slow? I figure, if FreeBSD 
in general was so slow, then noone would really use it. Are there any 
"standard tricks" in the book that speeds up a slow X server or WM, or just 
FreeBSD in general?

Humbly and with Best Regards!
/Jalle

PS. If you feel an urge to hit down some nasty words in a mail and send it 
to this babbling MS-loving idiot, please read the very top section in my 
mail again. Technical answers and explanations only, pleeaase! DS.