12.04 Sluggish: Alternatives or workarounds?

[tsunamikitsune]

I've been an Ubuntu user off and on since 6.06 and have always had great experiences. Generally, the reason I uninstall is because I run across something I can't do without Windows. Recently, however, I've been using my laptop more often (with Windows 8...which is not particularly fun without a touch screen) and I realize that I'd probably enjoy running Linux on it since I would still have my desktop to fall back on if I need Windows.

Oh, and the fact that Steam is finally on Linux is pretty encouraging, too. I could play Faster Than Light forever.

I decided to go for it and install 12.04. I think the last version I used was 10.04, so the jump to Unity was a bit jarring. I installed Gnome for some familiarity, but the hurdle I just couldn't get over was the generally poor performance of the OS. Menus would sometimes pause before opening, windows would stop responding...it was a very unsettling experience to encounter these kinds of issues I'm used to only seeing in Windows. Ubuntu has typically been perfect for me in nearly every respect (the program compatibility being the only downfall), no matter what kind of hardware I install it on. I put 10.04 or something earlier on my friend's 5-10 year old laptop a few months back after her Windows XP install started crashing sporadically and it ran like new. Why is it my less than 2 year old laptop (upgraded with 8GB RAM and SSD) is having issues running 12.04?

I also managed to render the system mostly unusable twice now. The first time, the resolution settings got messed up and it could only display in 640x480. I reinstalled. Now, after a fairly manageable first boot, I find that subsequent boots bring me directly to the terminal and I can't start the graphical interface.

Ugh.

I'm sure those two failures have a lot to do with trying to install drivers with my video card setup (I've got that stupid Nvidia Optimus thing), but I HAVE successfully run Ubuntu 10.04 on this machine (pre-hardware upgrades) with zero hiccups (I couldn't make use of the Optimus feature, but it ran smoothly on just the one video card), so I don't really understand why the UI would be sluggish in 12.04, especially when I'm using Gnome over Unity.

So, my question is: How are others faring with 12.04? Is it as touchy as I think it is? Or am I overreacting? I feel like I've always had wonderful experiences with Ubuntu, but this is souring so far. Would it be wise to use 10.04 instead?

[MadmanRB]

Eh sometimes using the proprietary driver can slug things down.
Did you try XFCE?

[craig10x]

13.04 is turning out to be a great release (been testing it in development for 2 months now) there have been a huge amount of unity improvements, newer kernels with better stability and performance, etc...
Perhaps you should consider going to 13.04 when it's released next week...and perhaps just stay with it until 14.04 arrives next april (2014)....even though there will only be 9 months of updates, you'd still be able to run it until 14.04...then you could get back on an LTS to LTS schedule again if you prefer...there has just been such a massive of improvements i have been observing, that i think it's valid to consider moving ahead instead of going back...Unity is REALLY SMOOTH in 13.04, and if you give it a chance, you may find you are very happy with the default desktop in ubuntu...

Also, as was just mentioned, try to avoid using proprietary drivers if possible, and run with the installed one if possible...usually less problems that way...

[mips]

I've been an Ubuntu user off and on since 6.06 and have always had great experiences. Generally, the reason I uninstall is because I run across something I can't do without Windows. Recently, however, I've been using my laptop more often (with Windows 8...which is not particularly fun without a touch screen) and I realize that I'd probably enjoy running Linux on it since I would still have my desktop to fall back on if I need Windows.

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2134489 on how to make Win8 a better experience.

[tsunamikitsune]

I'll take the "don't install proprietary drivers" advice to heart, but the reason I attempted it at all was because I hoped it would make the performance issues go away. Knowing that it was that sluggish despite already being the best it could be is a little disheartening.

I could probably try XFCE, but I still have to wonder why my laptop can't even handle Gnome.

[craig10x]

You might want to download a daily build of ubuntu 13.04 and just run it live and see how it does for you...

[tsunamikitsune]

You might want to download a daily build of ubuntu 13.04 and just run it live and see how it does for you...

Not a bad idea. Considering it comes out next week (good timing!), I'll probably not get too attached to whatever I have going right now and install it then.

[lykwydchykyn]

I don't know what fantasy world people are living in where nouveau works better than the proprietary nvidia drivers, but please tell me how to get there. ATI/AMD drivers are one thing, but the nvidia driver has always worked a treat on any nvidia card I've used. I'm excited when nouveau works at all.

I may be wrong, but I think Optimus is the chipset that prompted Linus to drop an F-bomb and flip Nvidia the bird on camera. I've heard it's rudimentarily supported in the beta version of the proprietary driver, but that's about it. You probably want to track newer versions of the kernel and drivers to see if support shapes up.

[Gone fishing]

I had a few issues with 12.04 and am now using 13.04 and I think it is a good release even in Beta it's stable and I find it fasted and better. As for Unity - use it for a while and I think you may find you end up liking it, there is a bit of a jarring as it is so different from Gnome 2 but I think it's better and certainly better than Cinnamon (Mint users feel free to disagree).