Is 12.04 Precise Pangolin Slower Than Lucid Lynx 10.04?

[Kixtosh]

I've been using Lucid Lynx 10.04 LTS on my home laptops and I've been very happy with it, but now support is ending for Lucid Lynx, and it seems like it's time to prepare the switch to Precise Pangolin, the current Long Term Support release.

To try things out I decided to load Precise Pangolin on a spare hard drive that already had Lucid Lynx on it, so:

1. I chose a test laptop (before upgrading all of them at once), and removed the existing hard drive.
2. Installed a new hard drive that has Lucid Lynx already on it.
3. Allowed Lucid Lynx to upgrade to Precise Pangolin.

Everything went very smoothly and I booted up Precise Pangolin. The first things I noticed are the following:

• Boot time remains very snappy, at about 20 seconds, and seems identical in speed to Lucid Lynx. Great!
• Shut down time is much longer than Lucid Lynx, requiring 20 seconds compared to just 3 seconds. Not so great!

I have always loved my three second shut down times, especially on a laptop. First, push the power button; then, wait three seconds; finally, grab & go! I find that there's lots to love about the new desktop already, but I don't know if I want to sacrifice my fast shut downs on all of the family laptops.

Is this normal operation for Precise Pangolin, or can I do something to improve on twenty seconds to turn off? Are newer releases, even if they are not LTS, any better?

[presence1960]

I've been using Lucid Lynx 10.04 LTS on my home laptops and I've been very happy with it, but now support is ending for Lucid Lynx, and it seems like it's time to prepare the switch to Precise Pangolin, the current Long Term Support release.

To try things out I decided to load Precise Pangolin on a spare hard drive that already had Lucid Lynx on it, so:

1. I chose a test laptop (before upgrading all of them at once), and removed the existing hard drive.
2. Installed a new hard drive that has Lucid Lynx already on it.
3. Allowed Lucid Lynx to upgrade to Precise Pangolin.

Everything went very smoothly and I booted up Precise Pangolin. The first things I noticed are the following:

• Boot time remains very snappy, at about 20 seconds, and seems identical in speed to Lucid Lynx. Great!
• Shut down time is much longer than Lucid Lynx, requiring 20 seconds compared to just 3 seconds. Not so great!

I have always loved my three second shut down times, especially on a laptop. First, push the power button; then, wait three seconds; finally, grab & go! I find that there's lots to love about the new desktop already, but I don't know if I want to sacrifice my fast shut downs on all of the family laptops.

Is this normal operation for Precise Pangolin, or can I do something to improve on twenty seconds to turn off? Are newer releases, even if they are not LTS, any better?

Don't take this the wrong way. Do you use your machine to perform shut down or do you use it to accomplish the things you want to do with the software installed on the OS? I think you are quibbling over a few really insignificant seconds in reference to shut down time. If the rest of the OS is to your liking then a few extra seconds to shut down is well woth it!

[Kixtosh]

Don't take this the wrong way. ... I think you are quibbling over a few really insignificant seconds in reference to shut down time ...

Well, I know I deserved that, and no, I won't be taking it the wrong way, but thank you for asking!

I knew it would seem trivial, but that fast shutdown just means that my young kids don't pull the power cord to get their laptop off the table to make room for dinner before it has had time to shut down properly. It also means that I don't sit around waiting at midnight to see if my laptop shut down correctly or not ... and it gives me bragging rights too (when I don't have much else to brag about!). I used to hate waiting for an eternity while Windows XP would boot or shut down, and it's one of the reasons I switched in the first place (and for a more secure work environment, especially when traveling). Windows 7 was a huge improvement on that score, but still not as good as Ubuntu. It's just one of the most obvious wait times on any computer in my opinion.

It sounds as though that's the way Precise Pangolin works, though, judging from your answer. I'll play around with it a bit before figuring out how much I like it before any rash decisions.

Am I right in thinking I can add the Gnome desktop instead of Unity? Maybe that would get me my three second shut down. There's always Lubuntu or Xubuntu (or even Mint, for that matter) but I've never liked those as much as Ubuntu in the past.

[presence1960]

Well, I know I deserved that, and no, I won't be taking it the wrong way, but thank you for asking!

I knew it would seem trivial, but that fast shutdown just means that my young kids don't pull the power cord to get their laptop off the table to make room for dinner before it has had time to shut down properly. It also means that I don't sit around waiting at midnight to see if my laptop shut down correctly or not ... and it gives me bragging rights too (when I don't have much else to brag about!). I used to hate waiting for an eternity while Windows XP would boot or shut down, and it's one of the reasons I switched in the first place (and for a more secure work environment, especially when traveling). Windows 7 was a huge improvement on that score, but still not as good as Ubuntu. It's just one of the most obvious wait times on any computer in my opinion.

It sounds as though that's the way Precise Pangolin works, though, judging from your answer. I'll play around with it a bit before figuring out how much I like it before any rash decisions.

Am I right in thinking I can add the Gnome desktop instead of Unity? Maybe that would get me my three second shut down. There's always Lubuntu or Xubuntu (or even Mint, for that matter) but I've never liked those as much as Ubuntu in the past.

wasn't meant as a put down! You can get to the Gnome desktop at the ubuntu log in window. Just above and to the right of the password entry box there is a little round symbol. Click on that and choose classic Gnome. I believe it is an option already installed. then log in amd you are good to go.

[Nesaskewatch]

I just gotta chirp in here and with all due respect... My laptop, running 12.10 & windows 8, boots up in about 25 seconds, which is still faster than windows 8 with the so called fast boot (I call it a fly catcher) and shuts down in ~6 seconds on average. Just timed it over 5 cycles. That is blistering fast. But I guess 3 seconds is even faster and having to wait that extra 3 must seem like eternity!

[presence1960]

I just gotta chirp in here and with all due respect... My laptop, running 12.10 & windows 8, boots up in about 25 seconds, which is still faster than windows 8 with the so called fast boot (I call it a fly catcher) and shuts down in ~6 seconds on average. Just timed it over 5 cycles. That is blistering fast. But I guess 3 seconds is even faster and having to wait that extra 3 must seem like eternity!

Your opinion is welcomed. My point was that in the grand scheme of things if the shutdown is a little slow and is the only complaint there shouldn't be a problem. Even if it takes 30 seconds to shut down, that is inconsequential because you only shut down once. It is everything that happens prior to shutdown that is really important. A slower shut down may irk some- but come on really!!!!

[Kixtosh]

I just gotta chirp in here ...

Thanks for chirping!

If I got everything to shut down in six seconds, this thread wouldn't even be here! Did you find any difference between 12.04 and 12.10? I mean, surely a Quetzal can fly faster than than a Pangolin can scoot (or whatever it does)?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangolin

... Pangolins spend most of the daytime sleeping curled up into a ball ...

[ahallubuntu]

I recently did a clean install of Ubuntu 12.04 - several, actually, one 32 bit one 64 bit. One of the 64 bit installs replaced the 32 bit install of Ubuntu 10.04 I have been using for years.

I can't give you an apples to apples comparison exactly because I also switched to a new (seemingly faster) hard drive. Plus, I moved to a 64 bit OS. Still - 12.04 seems a little snappier to me. Shutdown time is still pretty quick, though because I rarely ever shut down or restart on my laptop, I'm not really sure how long it takes. Usually 5-6 seconds I think. Most of the time I suspend or hibernate my laptop and don't need to shutdown.

I'm using "Gnome Classic" which looks close to the old Gnome 2 in Ubuntu 10.04; you can get Gnome Classic as a login option with 12.04 simply by installing Gnome Shell in Ubuntu Software center. So far, after a couple of weeks, I'm quite happy with 12.04. There are still a few quirks, but there were in 10.04 anyway and there seem to be more upsides to 12.04 than downsides.

[aspergerian]

I've been using Xubuntu 12.04.1 and am amazed how fast it shuts down.

[Mark Phelps]

...Did you find any difference between 12.04 and 12.10? I mean, surely a Quetzal can fly faster than than a Pangolin can scoot (or whatever it does)?

In my own experience, 12.10 is considerably slower than 12.04 in all respects -- startup, operations, shutdown.

So, if you're upset about the slowdown with 12.04, you'll be REALLY upset when you go to 12.10.