lubuntu is slower than xubuntu...

[Legendary_Bibo]

I'm running Lubuntu 10.04 on the same old dell machine I had Xubuntu 9.10 and it's slower at bootup, and starting applications. Isn't it supposed to be lighter? I'm getting the updates from synaptic right now, maybe it'll speed up with the updates. Oh well, it seems to run fine once the applications actually start running.

[kerry_s]

9.10 & 10.04 are very different, lots of changes under the hood.

[Legendary_Bibo]

And not for the better I'm assuming.

[bruno9779]

And not for the better I'm assuming.

If you assume the 10.04 is worse that 9.10, why on earth did you upgrade?

[Legendary_Bibo]

If you assume the 10.04 is worse that 9.10, why on earth did you upgrade?
I had Xubuntu 9.10 which was still slow on my old computer, I heard Lubuntu was lighter so I went and downloaded it. They only had 10.04 because their 9.10 version was just a testing unstable releases. Meh, I'm just going to get some RAM anyways.

[bruno9779]

Some extra RAM is always neat.

I am so happy wit my 6 GB DDR3 RAM, swap isn't used at all, (except for when I rip some big DVD in HD)

[Legendary_Bibo]

Some extra RAM is always neat.

I am so happy wit my 6 GB DDR3 RAM, swap isn't used at all, (except for when I rip some big DVD in HD)

Yeah I have 4gb on my laptop and it's nice. The old desktop I have only has 256mb of RAM. I've noticed that when looking at distros, just because it says it'll run on 128mb and 256mb of RAM does not mean that it's going to run perfectly fast.

[andrewabc]

Only having 256mb ram is bad, even for ubuntu/linux.
512mb minimum should work much better. Although if you can go to 768mb (add a 512mb ram) that should make you able to run OS and firefox (assuming firefox wants 100mb of ram). I have lots of old ram laying around, and you can probably find some for free, especially if you know people throwing out old computers. Otherwise you can buy a 512mb ddr1 stick for $30 at newegg, which would be well worth the money for the upgrade (assuming it uses ddr1 and not sdram).

But from what I read in your other thread, it is an old P4, 80gb hard drive.

That 80gb hard drive is extremely slow as well.

When in normal ubuntu 10.04, run
system->admin->disk utility->select hard drive and run read speed benchmark. You can do this from livecd/liveusb.

Here is a benchmark of my P4 computer 80gb hard drive.
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/7406/screenshot80gbharddiska.th.png (http://img688.imageshack.us/i/screenshot80gbharddiska.png/)

40mb/s max is what will kill your speed.
Newer hard drives get 100mb/s. SSD get 250mb/s.

I tested lubuntu in virtualbox and everything seemed to run fine, and it looks much lighter than xubuntu.

If choosing between 9.10 and 10.04, 10.04 should work better. Although if you don't mind testing (don't care if need to format any time), the 10.10 testing might show best speed (I'd wait until Alpha 2 in July to test).

EDIT:
According to your other thread it looks like you have SDRAM. $40 for 512mb, $30 for 256mb. I'd look for free used ram first. Maybe local small tech shop has some cheap used ram.
I'm guessing your ram slots only accept 512mb stick max (probably 2gb total). You'd have to use windows software to determine better ram/computer info.
Not worth putting a lot of money into the computer, but bringing total ram to 512mb or 768mb total is the only worthwhile thing to do. Anything else and you would be better off getting a nettop. newegg.ca has eee box on sale for $230 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220006) with email promo code. That is real old nettop version, you can get newer versions for $280 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173001). I definitely recommend getting newer (dual core atom + nvidia ion) versions, as they are 2-3 times faster than old versions. (Also since you are from usa, newegg.com is where you would shop)

So don't go spending lots of $ on old P4 when you can get much faster nettop that only uses 25 watts vs >=100 watts for old P4. And takes up no space at all and should not make much noise.

I would not recommend buying 1gb ram sticks for old computer, as it is possible they might not work on your computer if it has a limit of say 512mb stick max module size. 512mb would be cheaper, and all you need.
Make sure you find out exactly what type of ram your computer uses before buying.