Why is FreeBSD so SLOW?

[Antoine Jacoutot]

> 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?

Yes we can :-)
Either use a wrapper (like arts under KDE, esound...), or use virtual 
channels.
For exemple, here is what I put in my /etc/sysctl.conf:
hw.snd.pcm0.vchans=4
hw.snd.maxautovchans=4
Now, I have 4 channels for sound:
/dev/dsp (= /dev/dsp0.0)
/dev/dsp0.1
/dev/dsp0.2
/dev/dsp0.3
Now, you can configure your applications to use either one of those. I use 
/dev/dsp0.0 for arts (so every application that can use arts; there's a lot) 
can have simultaneous sound. I use /dev/dsp0.1 for realplayer, /dev/dsp0.2 
for......

> 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?

Well, everything under X is much slower under FreeBSD than under Linux or 
Windows (any flavor)... at least, this is my experience.
I think (please feel free to basically, for today jobs (workstation, small 
workgroup servers...) Linux is faster, but in high load server tasks , 
FreeBSD is the fastest OS I've ever seen (OK, I haven't seen a lot, but 
still).
Nevertheless, I use FreeBSD on my workstation.

Best regards.

Antoine