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topNow, most think that the only thing to look at is the processes running (and if there are extraneous ones running, you certainly want to kill them), but that's not all to look at. My system has been bogged big time for over the last two months, and I couldn't figure out why. I have kept running top, not seeing anything extraneous but the Mandriva online applet to update with. I don't have that running on my desktop; in fact, thought I'd uninstalled it (I hate that thing). It kept bugging me that it was running, until I looked in the second column on the left, and saw another user was listed (my son's), running a few other things as well. So, I logged out of my desktop, and sure enough, found that he had switched users to his desktop from mine, then never logged out; he just switched users right back, and I remembered that it was right about the time my desktop started bogging down. I just had to login to his desktop just to exit the programs he'd been running, and to log out of his session. So, be sure to look at the users that are running in top too; it could save you as well. Comb top with a fine-tooth comb, not just one column of it, either.
Yes, Virginia, now that that's done, it's running much better.
