For Speed: install another desktop, or another distro?

[baphomet2]

Sorry it took so long to reply. Work has been a nightmare as of late.

The relationship is xubuntu and xfce are just about the same thing. xubuntu is built on the xfce interface which uses xserver. To be honest I haven't really seen a noticeable difference between the two so I'm not really sure why they are listed separately.

You do have a variant of linux which is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a "debian based" variant. What the community did after that was modify the interface and base packages making different "flavors" of Ubuntu.

What clean install means is they have iso's out there for each flavor of ubuntu (kubuntu, lubuntu, xubuntu, etc). When you install Ubuntu you get the Unity interface and gnome. If you then install xubuntu you have both gnome and xserver packages/libraries installed. They do share some tools, but not all of them. So for a "clean install" you download the xubuntu iso - http://xubuntu.org/getxubuntu/ and install it. Now what you would have is strictly xubuntu using xserver. You will still have some gnome as they are needed for some tools, but it isn't full blown. Is it really necessary at this point? I don't think so, but in the future if you install a new computer you should start with the specific flavor you want instead of Ubuntu first.

I'm glad you got everything working the way you wanted it and are enjoying your introduction to xubuntu.

[Ace.....]

Enjoying xubuntu...
Well, apparently I am, according to your post (vis a vis xubuntu being the same as xfce), only that I have't seen xubuntu since launching xfce

Not that i mind, cos XFCE seems to be the 'thinking man's o/s'..... not happy.... then change it.

The problem is: the scale and spread of knowledge.
An expert in one field of computing can be an imbecile in another.

Me... I started computing with IBM DOS, which then became MS DOS.
I've developed data recovery software, and can explain to any willing listener, how information is stored on a disk.

Yet.....
...... do I understand the linux world.
Er.... no, I don't.

I had previously thought of linux like DOS.
First we had DOS.
Then we had 'launch option lists'
ie. instead of changing dir to paradox, and then launching paradox.... we simply launched paradox.

Then we had Windows, which launched programs by clicking on a pictorial representation of a program (but that the click, merely enacted the typed command).

I always thought of ubuntu like windows....... effectively a GUI to replace typed commands
However, I guess it is more complicated than that

[monkeybrain20122]

You specs are more than enough to run Unity smoothly, you don't need a "light" desktop (it is a myth that Unity is super hungry on resources) If even with xfce you can only watch 480p on Youtube it is a graphic driver problem. Which driver do you use? For your card even the open driver supports vpdau decoding but you may have to get it from a ppa.

[d-cosner]

I agree, that is more than enough of a system to run Unity. Sounds to me like hardware acceleration needs to be turned off in Firefox. Also, make a flash video full size, right click and go into flash settings and turn off hardware acceleration too.

[Ace.....]

If even with xfce you can only watch 480p on Youtube it is a graphic driver problem. Which driver do you use? For your card even the open driver supports vpdau decoding but you may have to get it from a ppa.

I ran:

lspci | grep -i vga

This returned:

00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Wrestler [Radeon HD 6250]

I believe this is describing the graphics chip and not the driver.

Here is the relevant output of

sudo lshw
 
description: Notebook
    product: eME644 (123456789)
    vendor: eMachines
    version: V1.07
    serial: LXNCW020081131E14E1601
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-2.7 dmi-2.7 vsyscall32
    configuration: boot=normal chassis=notebook family=Type1Family sku=123456789 uuid=1E118C95-56AA-11E0-987D-1C7508F91871
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: eME644
       vendor: eMachines
       physical id: 0
       version: V1.07
       serial: LXNCW020081131E14E1601
       slot: Base Board Chassis Location
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: eMachines
          physical id: 0
          version: V1.07
          date: 03/07/2011
          size: 1MiB
          capacity: 1984KiB
          capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int9keyboard int10video acpi usb
     *-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: 24
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 3GiB
          capacity: 3GiB
        *-bank:0
             description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
             product: NT1GC64BH4B0PS-CG
             vendor: Nanya Technology
             physical id: 0
             serial: C1FAC819
             slot: DIMM0
             size: 1GiB
             width: 16 bits
             clock: 1066MHz (0.9ns)
        *-bank:1
             description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
             product: HMT325S6BFR8C-H9
             vendor: Unknown
             physical id: 1
             serial: 6176FA8B
             slot: DIMM1
             size: 2GiB
             width: 8 bits
             clock: 1066MHz (0.9ns)
     *-cpu
          description: CPU
          product: AMD C-50 Processor
          vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
          physical id: 2d
          bus info: cpu@0
          version: AMD C-50 Processor
          serial: NotSupport
          slot: Socket FT1
          size: 1GHz
          capacity: 1GHz
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 100MHz
          capabilities: x86-64 fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid aperfmperf pni monitor ssse3 cx16 popcnt lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch ibs skinit wdt arat npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save pausefilter cpufreq
          configuration: cores=2 enabledcores=2 threads=2
     *-cache:0
          description: L1 cache
          physical id: 2e
          slot: L1 Cache
          size: 128KiB
          capacity: 128KiB
          capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
     *-cache:1
          description: L2 cache
          physical id: 2f
          slot: L2 Cache
          size: 1MiB
          capacity: 1MiB
          capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
     *-pci:0
          description: Host bridge
          product: Family 14h Processor Root Complex
          vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
          physical id: 100
          bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
          version: 00
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 66MHz
        *-display
             description: VGA compatible controller
             product: Wrestler [Radeon HD 6250]
             vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
             physical id: 1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
             configuration: driver=fglrx_pci latency=0
             resources: irq:42 memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:4000(size=256) memory:d0400000-d043ffff
        *-multimedia:0
             description: Audio device
             product: Wrestler HDMI Audio
             vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
             physical id: 1.1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:01.1
             version: 00
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm pciexpress msi bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0
             resources: irq:40 memory:d0444000-d0447fff

The conclusions are not clear to me.
The Wrestler appears to be 32bit, while my PC is 64bit, but maybe this is not significant?

configuration: driver=fglrx_pci latency=0

I'm out of my comfort zone here.
Is this the correct driver?

I loaded:
http://driverscollection.com/?H=Rade...Linux%20x86_64

and noted that the latest driver for 64bit linux is 13.12.

Yet there is no mention of this driver on:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver