To speeding up the boot time.

Sudo apt-get install insserv

This effisiantly re-orders the boot script. you can also allow parrelle starts edit /etc/default/rcS

CONCURRENCY=shell

Install readahead package which loads required boot procedures into a chache memory. Now we need to create the file it needs

sudo touch /etc/readahead/profile-once

to speed up application time the preload package will load your applications into cache memory for you. Because preload learns what to cache based on your user activity it takes a week or two for it to learn what apps you use frequently that should be stored in cache.

To improve desktop performance.

to prevent access times from being longed edit /etc/fstab and add the noatime to your parameters

/dev/sda1/ ext3 defaults,noatime, 0 1

to reduce and optimize swapping to your hard disc edit the /etc/sysctl.conf and add the following to the bottom of the file.

#Swapping
vm.swappiness=20
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
#

If you know what you are doing, and understand what daemons load in your init script and which ones you do not need, then you can configure your init using the sysvconfig package or the graphical runlevel editor bum.

On my system I disabled acipi since I am on a desktop that is always plugged in, power management seems a little mute. I also disabled syslog, exim4 and avahi, because I never use them.

Now I reboot.

these tips came from Julian67′s post on the Debian forms.