We address complexity issues for linear differential equations in characteristic p > 0: resolution and computation of the p-curvature. For these tasks, our main focus is on algorithms whose complexity behaves well with respect to p. We prove bounds linear in p on the degree of polynomial solutions and propose algorithms for testing the existence of polynomial solutions in sublinear timeÕ(p 1/2 ), and for determining a whole basis of the solution space in quasi-linear timeÕ(p); theÕ notation indicates that we hide logarithmic factors. We show that for equations of arbitrary order, the p-curvature can be computed in subquadratic timeÕ(p 1.79 ), and that this can be improved to O(log(p)) for first order equations and toÕ(p) for classes of second order equations.