[Evolution] Fedora 20 - Evolution - Gnome gui freezes

["Gregory P. Ennis" <PoMec PoMec Net>]

Everyone,

I have 5 users using Fedora 20 that are updated, and each is using
Evolution 3.10.4 within the gnome desktop that have reported problems
with their desktop 'freezing' during an access of evolution as well as
less often firefox.

The machines that have reported failures include Dell Optiplex 780, 760,
745, and 755.  

780 -
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]

745 -
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q963/Q965 Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

780 -
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q963/Q965 Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

755 -
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

760 -
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

This has also happened to me.  When the gui freezes, cursor movement is
not affected, but I am unable to access or click any active button on
evolution or any other part of the desktop.  I can switch back and forth
from gui to terminal interface by using <cntrl><alt>F2 and
<cntrl><Alt>F1.  The only way I have been able to continue is with a
reboot process.  

I posted this on the Fedora user's group list and received a reply that
this had also been observed by another user that made the deduction that
the problem occurs not only with evolution, but with firefox.  I had
been suspicious of firefox, but have only made the firefox observation
one time.  Apparently those that use the kde desktop even when they use
evolution have not reported this problem.    

John Mellor offered this explanation on the Fedora user's list :

> I have also observed this problem, not just in Evolution, but also in
> Firefox.  In my case, the problem appears to be either (a) mail and
> web pages that contain images or videos that have problematic render
> engines on Linux, or (b) massive processor overload when web pages
> that have a large number of videos on them (such as Facebook) try to
> render them all simultaneously without limiting the resource
> utilization.
>
> Because the problems are across more than one client application, I
> suspect that the problem is actually an inability to limit resource
> utilization by the desktop - in my case Gnome.  It has been like this
> for quite a few Fedora releases now, and other than getting away from
> Gnome, I'm not sure what else to do.  On an underpowered dual-core,
> these lockups are devastating, and sometimes even require an ACPI
> reboot to recover from.

Although John has made this observation in earlier versions of Fedora, I
have only made the observation with Fedora 20.  If you have suggestions
of a remedy, I would very much appreciate it.   I am getting user
requests to change back to an inferior platform of an operating system,
and am not inclined to do so. :)

Please help  ... Thanks,

Greg Ennis