Gnome 1.4

[jik foxinternet net]

I just installed Slackware 8.0 which comes with gnome 1.4.  It's pretty.

However, seems to me that quite a few applications are VERY slow to
start, even light weight ones like gnotepad.  There is no disk
thrashing, so it is not an overloaded memory issue.....It is also not a
CPU load, there is absolutely no impact on CPU load, in fact xload shows
a continueing drop in load.  It takes almost exactly 10 seconds for
these applications to start starting, which I am measuring the time from
when I select it from the menu or run from command and when the disk
starts getting hit.  As soon as it starts accessing the disk the
application starts right up, I mean I have a TBird750 there is no reason
why it wouldn't.

A short list of the programs I have noticed this with:
XChat
gnotepad
xbill (can't get much lighter then that....)
gturing
freecell
most if not all games actually.....

and in gconfigurator it also takes a long time to try and start some of
the embedded applications like the panel config tool.

Correction from before, the disk gets accessed for a milisecond maybe
during this wait period.

Bigger, heavier applications like nautilus take a bit to start up, but
they do start hitting the hard drive right off the bat.  So far not a
single non-gnome app has this problem, they all start immediately.

This lessens my happiness with the environment considerably.  Is there
any way I can fix this problem?  Is there any input anyone can give to
help me diagnose exactly what the problem is?

thanks for any help.