diff --git a/doc/htconfig.md b/doc/htconfig.md
index 15242e307..50fc4255f 100644
--- a/doc/htconfig.md
+++ b/doc/htconfig.md
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ Example: To set the automatic database cleanup process add this line to your .ht
 * **throttle_limit_month** - Maximum number of posts that a user can send per month with the API.
 * **wall-to-wall_share** (Boolean) - Displays forwarded posts like "wall-to-wall" posts.
 * **worker_cooldown** - Cooldown time after each worker function call. Default value is 0 seconds.
+* **worker_linear_load** (Boolean) - Enables the linear calculation of maximum queues.
 * **xrd_timeout** - Timeout for fetching the XRD links. Default value is 20 seconds.
 
 ## experimental ##
diff --git a/mod/admin.php b/mod/admin.php
index e05dae540..b43baa443 100644
--- a/mod/admin.php
+++ b/mod/admin.php
@@ -1029,7 +1029,7 @@ function admin_page_site_post(App $a)
 	$rino			=	((x($_POST,'rino'))			? intval($_POST['rino'])			: 0);
 	$check_new_version_url	=	((x($_POST, 'check_new_version_url'))	?	notags(trim($_POST['check_new_version_url']))	: 'none');
 
-	$worker_queues		=	((x($_POST,'worker_queues'))		? intval($_POST['worker_queues'])		: 4);
+	$worker_queues		=	((x($_POST,'worker_queues'))		? intval($_POST['worker_queues'])		: 10);
 	$worker_dont_fork	=	((x($_POST,'worker_dont_fork'))		? True						: False);
 	$worker_fastlane	=	((x($_POST,'worker_fastlane'))		? True						: False);
 	$worker_frontend	=	((x($_POST,'worker_frontend'))		? True						: False);
@@ -1448,7 +1448,7 @@ function admin_page_site(App $a)
 
 		'$rino' 		=> ['rino', L10n::t("RINO Encryption"), intval(Config::get('system','rino_encrypt')), L10n::t("Encryption layer between nodes."), [0 => L10n::t("Disabled"), 1 => L10n::t("Enabled")]],
 
-		'$worker_queues' 	=> ['worker_queues', L10n::t("Maximum number of parallel workers"), Config::get('system','worker_queues'), L10n::t("On shared hosters set this to 2. On larger systems, values of 10 are great. Default value is 4.")],
+		'$worker_queues' 	=> ['worker_queues', L10n::t("Maximum number of parallel workers"), Config::get('system','worker_queues'), L10n::t("On shared hosters set this to %d. On larger systems, values of %d are great. Default value is %d.", 5, 20, 10)],
 		'$worker_dont_fork'	=> ['worker_dont_fork', L10n::t("Don't use 'proc_open' with the worker"), Config::get('system','worker_dont_fork'), L10n::t("Enable this if your system doesn't allow the use of 'proc_open'. This can happen on shared hosters. If this is enabled you should increase the frequency of worker calls in your crontab.")],
 		'$worker_fastlane'	=> ['worker_fastlane', L10n::t("Enable fastlane"), Config::get('system','worker_fastlane'), L10n::t("When enabed, the fastlane mechanism starts an additional worker if processes with higher priority are blocked by processes of lower priority.")],
 		'$worker_frontend'	=> ['worker_frontend', L10n::t('Enable frontend worker'), Config::get('system','frontend_worker'), L10n::t('When enabled the Worker process is triggered when backend access is performed \x28e.g. messages being delivered\x29. On smaller sites you might want to call %s/worker on a regular basis via an external cron job. You should only enable this option if you cannot utilize cron/scheduled jobs on your server.', System::baseUrl())],
diff --git a/src/Core/Worker.php b/src/Core/Worker.php
index d4257f124..bc45be2d5 100644
--- a/src/Core/Worker.php
+++ b/src/Core/Worker.php
@@ -624,16 +624,34 @@ class Worker
 		$load = current_load();
 		if ($load) {
 			$maxsysload = intval(Config::get("system", "maxloadavg", 50));
-			$tinyload = 1;
 
-			if ($load > $maxsysload) {
-				$queues = 0;
-			} elseif ($load > $tinyload) {
-				//Provide $queues number between 1 (below max load) and $maxqueues - 1 (above tiny load).
-				$range = $maxsysload - $tinyload;
-				$slope = 1.00 - (($load - $tinyload) / $range);
-				$target = $slope * ($maxqueues - 1);
-				$queues = intval(ceil($target));
+			if (Config::get('system', 'worker_linear_load', false)) {
+				/* The linear load calculation works fine if there is a low
+				 * number of maximum queues and a high load base level.
+				 * This can be present at shared hosters.
+				*/
+				$tinyload = 1;
+
+				if ($load > $maxsysload) {
+					$queues = 0;
+				} elseif ($load > $tinyload) {
+					//Provide $queues number between 1 (below max load) and $maxqueues - 1 (above tiny load).
+					$range = $maxsysload - $tinyload;
+					$slope = 1.00 - (($load - $tinyload) / $range);
+					$target = $slope * ($maxqueues - 1);
+					$queues = intval(ceil($target));
+				}
+			} else {
+				/* The exponentional load calculation respects the load behaviour
+				 * of Linux systems with regular hardware that normally idles
+				 * with load values near 0.
+				*/
+				$maxworkers = $queues;
+
+				// Some magical mathemathics to reduce the workers
+				$exponent = 3;
+				$slope = $maxworkers / pow($maxsysload, $exponent);
+				$queues = ceil($slope * pow(max(0, $maxsysload - $load), $exponent));
 			}
 
 			$processlist = '';