[scribus] Big freeze and recoveery with 1.3.5

[Gregory Pittman]

Craig Bradney wrote:
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> Subject: [scribus] Big freeze and recoveery with 1.3.5
>> From: John Culleton <john at wexfordpress.com>
>> To: "Scribus User Mailing List" <scribus at lists.scribus.net>
>> Date: 11-11-2008 23:27
>>
>>
>> While trying to recreate the Brochure template in 1.3.5 Scribus froze 
>> tighter than (insert Alaska joke here.) I could not shut down the 
>> story editor or the main window. I finally shut down the Kde session 
>> and then got an error message from Scribus asking me if I wanted to 
>> save my work.  So all was not lost. 
>>
>> Is this maybe a memory problem? I have 512 MB plus scads of virtual.  
>> Yes, I know 1.3.5 is a development version. 
>>     
>
> 512 is not much for DTP work, and with Scribus's current memory usage for
> images nowhere near enough. I would certainly recommend 1Gb, if not 2Gb.
> Then again, I'm just impatient and love spending money on hardware, so none
> of my numerous machines have less than 2Gb :).
>   
I have several computers, most of which I wouldn't consider wasting the 
money to upgrade anymore, but they're something like old friends I can't 
seem to part with. The only one in which Scribus is not very workable is 
an old PIII laptop with 250MB of RAM and about 500MB of swap (this 
doesn't count an old Gateway PII that can't manage Linux beyond RH9, and 
therefore Scribus isn't even in the realm of the conceivable). That 
Scribus will work at all on such a machine is a bit of a marvel, so I 
keep checking now and again just to see that it does indeed work. I 
probably should try at least doubling swap size the next time I upgrade 
just to see what use that might be.

A couple of other P4's with 500MB of RAM, 1GB of swap generally do Ok. 
You do have to be mindful of image memory usage - running 'top' can be 
very informative, like watching an impending train wreck in slow motion. 
For someone trying to do professional work on a regular basis, that 
extra layer of careful planning necessary just to manage isn't worth the 
recurrent headaches.

Greg