13.04 should be dedicated to performance.

[vexorian]

Clang is from apple under a non-copy left license. Making all our development depend on it would be the most stupid move ever done ever.

web browsing (Firefox)
email (Thunderbird)
shell sessions (local and remote via SSH)
office applications, primarily spreadsheets and documents (Open/LibreOffice)
audio (Clementine)
video (smplayer)
graphics (GIMP)
statistics (gretl)
VMs (VirtualBox)

All these apps (except video and audio) run noticeably slower to me in non-2D unity than in 2D unity. I use VLC for multimedia and it also feels faster in unity-2D.

Edit: Just read that you use Kubuntu. Well DUH, this is about unity being too slow.

From reading postings here over the past couple of years the things I think require the most work are:

suspend/resume
hybrid laptop graphics like Optimus
wifi drivers
installations that don't run afoul of nomodeset
transparent interoperability with phones and iThings
convenient multi-language support
residual audio problems with pulse/Jack
support for various peripherals like webcams, fingerprint readers, etc.
printer installation

Most of these things come from mainstream. Ubuntu mostly just packages stuff and does interface tweaks and develops unity. So I think it makes sense that in regards to what canonical plans to do next, it would be far more useful for them to opimize performance rather than do what they would instead do (That is, most likely add new lenses to unity so that it is able to do even more things that a web browser can already do).

While Ubuntu performance isn't on par with SUSE, Fedora, Arch, or Debian, it's still better than Windows... The Valve developers even admitted such.

We don't have many details of how they tested.

"Ubuntu" itself is not bad for performance, I get great performance in games by running them from a single terminal without a desktop manager.

The issue is that the default desktop is too slow and comparatively slower than DEs that do the same sort of effects. (And this is a bad thing).

If Valve tested under a different DE than unity, then it does not say anything about whether we should improve unity or not.

(Actually, the main cultprit is not unity, it is compiz)

[heminder]

For those of us who don't play games, what exactly is the performance issue?

Gamers aren't the only ones that appreciate performance.

For example, I use several applications that run much much better when the performance is there: Blender, GIMP, Jack/Ardour and various simulation softwares. I can do more with better performance. These are some of the key applications that actually make this OS worthwhile running and can be brought up in the "you can't do anything on Linux" argument. From a newbie Windows user perspective: if they perform the same as on my Windows box, why bother going through the fuss of changing OS?

Another reason is old hardware. Nobody can argue that a better performing OS will have that P4 machine sticking around for longer. There's a whole ecoligical dimension to this too.

[vasa1]

@ vasa 1

Quick glance and I read that as MS=MicroSoft...! lol.
...
....er, going away to think on that some more......

Fixed.
Thinking can be injurious to health

[SeijiSensei]

For example, I use several applications that run much much better when the performance is there: Blender, GIMP, Jack/Ardour and various simulation softwares. I can do more with better performance.

I use GIMP and some other processor-intensive applications like gretl. Their performance has little to do with the issues the OP is concerned about. How fast it takes GIMP to rescale a large graphic, convert an image, etc., is largely a function of the CPU speed and the quality of the code in GIMP. Now perhaps something like Blender might be more affected because it needs access to the 3D libraries, but I presume anyone running Blender seriously already has some pretty hefty hardware to devote to this task.

[SeijiSensei]

Edit: Just read that you use Kubuntu. Well DUH, this is about unity being too slow.

So just how slow is it when I'm reading a web page or composing an email?

I'd still argue that Ubuntu will lose more people when they cannot get their wifi cards to work, or can't get things to display properly under something like Optimus, then they will by some performance issue in Unity. People use applications, not desktop environments, and not operating systems. The last two are just means to an end.

[BrokenKingpin]

I think they need to dedicate 13.04 to finding a new DE for default.

They at least need to start working on getting rid of that old corroded Compiz. Compiz was awesome in its day, but then again, so was Windows 3.11.

I did not even like compiz in its day... it has always been a buggy piece of crap. If you want those type of effects, KWin does a far better job.

I think they should have went with Xfce or KDE as the default DE. Probably KDE as it would be easier to support a lot of the features they put into Unity (or already does). KDE is very customizable, but most distros leave it fairly stock, so there was lots of room for them to make it unique and stand out as a Ubuntu desktop.

[Mikeb85]

My Windows 8 install boots faster than Ubuntu.

Boot speed does not equal performance...

But yes, Windows 8 does perform pretty well. In my experience, it's about the same as Ubuntu, and a bit slower than SUSE.

[Ubun2to]

Boot speed does not equal performance...

But yes, Windows 8 does perform pretty well. In my experience, it's about the same as Ubuntu, and a bit slower than SUSE.

Well, Windows 8 does boot faster-but that is because of their partial shutdown. Essentially, it is really fast hibernation for certain files, the ones that take the longest. That is my understanding. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Ubun2to]

They're important issues, but most of what you listed are kernel issues. Ubuntu does very little work on the kernel, and there are major projects in place to improve driver support for the Linux kernel. It's not something that's going to be significantly impacted by a papercuts project or an Ubuntu development cycle.

I like your #2 idea, but I'm afraid the Ubuntu devs are going the other way and dropping support for alternate install.

For what it's worth, performance *should* improve over the next few releases. It took a hit in moving from GTK2 to GTK3, and with the switch to a composited window manager. Hardware will catch up to this, and FOSS video drivers are always improving. I don't see any similarly taxing changes coming in the near future to set it back again, but who knows?

I know it is with the kernel, but the kernel developers should not be the only ones to write drivers. Such a large task for such few people.
If Canonical continues to build good relations with hardware manufacturers, they could get them to make drivers for older devices as well as new ones.
Also, they need to make sure that Apport is disabled by default-in 12.04, they left it on, and so my friend kept calling me "It said this program crashed. HELP!"

[harshen_r]

They should bring more support for Multi-Touch Screen and Automatic Screen Rotation for new and previous hybrid laptops.