1. Disable ipv6 and apparmor for speed up

add

ipv6.disable=1 apparmor=0

to linux command line in /etc/default/grub then run

update-grub

and reboot.

2. Disable wireless power saving on battery, because frankly 1 to 2 hundred milliseconds response time is too slow when you’re 20 feet from the access point.

Edit /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/wireless and replace any lines containing “power on” with “power off”. Not any update to pm-utils will overwrite this file and change the setting back.

3. Install Chromium as it is quite a bit faster and nicer to use than Firefox.

Remembering to keep Firefox around for the odd site that won’t work in Chromium e.g. some java based sites.

4. Add “noatime” and “commit=900″ to fstab.

Gives performance increase and saves SSDs by not writing to the journal all the time.