is 10.04 slower than earlier versions ?

[AM_SOS]

hi all,
can someone make some kind of comparison between the general operating speed of 10.04 against the previous versions particularly 9.10 and 9.04 ?
thing is, i have noticed that web browsing and general navigation about the system has become noticeably slow in the past couple of months.
now my toshiba A200 is nearly 3 years old and i had assumed that this sluggish behavious was caused by an ageing HDD.
now i have given up web browsing on my XP installation since i began using ubuntu. therefore, i was quite surprised to see that the laptop as fast as before!
clearly the sluggish navigation is due to 10.04. though strangely, the boot up and shutdown times are pretty fast as usual.
have other people faced this issue ?
i keep 10.04 updated. will future updates solve this problem ?
i sure dont want to go on like this for the next 2 years !! :o(
thanks!

[cj.surrusco]

What web browser are you using? Have you tried using other browsers?

[sydbat]

What are the exact specs of your laptop? I know it is a Celeron processor <insert shudder here>, but what speed? Also, how much RAM? Or, it could be the Intel graphics.

More info from you = more precise help from us! :)

[TBABill]

On my 3 year old laptop 10.04 was noticeably slower browsing (with the correct codecs, flash from Adobe and Sun Java with open source Java removed) than 9.10. I decided to run another distro on it and it's now as fast as my other machines. It has 2GB RAM and an AMD 1.9GHz dual core processor. The new Ubuntu just felt heavy on it, but Lubuntu blazes. Probably a Gnome issue rather than an Ubuntu issue since Lubuntu is based on 10.04. Mint 9 was just as slow on the same machine (Gnome version).

[AM_SOS]

well the specs are -

2.0 core duo
1 GHz RAM
120 GB, 5400rpm
GM 945 chipset

the browser is firefox.

but as i pointed out, the operation with 9.10 was very smooth. it is only after installing and using 10.04 for some time now, and especially after i compared it with XP, that i have noticed what seems to be problem with 10.04.

besides, even normal processes such as opening navigation windows is taking a little more time. this is in comparison with 9.10 where they would open instantly at the click of the mouse.

going by the latest reply to my query, there does seem to be a "problem" with 10.04. it just doens't work as fast as 9.10 as far as everyday tasks are concerned.

thanks!

[suprman2020]

Maybe its Firefox. Firefox has gotten kind of bloated and slow for me in both Windows 7 and Lucid.

[X.Cyclop]

Maybe you overloaded it with plugins/add-ons?

On my 4-year-old laptop it takes seconds to boot (pretty much faster than 9.10), and also had the same problem with firefox so i had to uninstall some add-ons.

[JonasDK]

I personally don't feel like 10.04 is faster than 9.10 in boottimes. I expected tens of seconds to be shaved off the boot time but it is more or less the same. (+-1 minute)

[clhsharky]

AM_SOS

Ubuntu is modern OS with all the fluff to go along with it , and about the same speed as Kubuntu. XP has no compositor so if you want to compare Ubuntu to windows you need to compare it to Vista or 7.

Xubuntu and Lubuntu have different file managers and are faster.

Chrome is faster than Firefox and if you want to Optimize Firefox or flash go here
http://firefox-tutorials.blogspot.com/

Adobe has optimized flash much more for window than for Linux(no HW acceleration)blame adobe for that not Linux.

Sharky

[nightfire117]

Clhsharky is right. Ubuntu has all the "extra fluff" that most users will want to use for everyday tasks. So of course as the versions go on Ubuntu will have to do whatever it can to compete in terms of serving the needs of the general end-user. Unfortunately this has resulted in more bloat than other distros, but, whatever works for you. Don't even try to defend the use of the word "bloat," because we all know it's getting slower and slower from 8.04 to 10.04.: p

I'll probably be using different distros here and there since Linux has never become my primary OS, but I think I'm going to stick with a Debian-derivative - Ubuntu or Mint, a derivative of Ubuntu, a main reason being that I like the aptitude system.

[cj.surrusco]

I personally don't feel like 10.04 is faster than 9.10 in boottimes. I expected tens of seconds to be shaved off the boot time but it is more or less the same. (+-1 minute)

The new ureadahead is supposed to increase boot speeds a lot. Cuts mine down from 25sec to 15sec.

[libssd]

I started with 9.04 last year, then upgraded to 9.10 (briefly) then did a clean install of 10.04. Running on low end hardware (basic Atom netbook), I haven't noticed any differences, other than boot/shutdown times, which are significantly faster in 10.04 than in 9.04.

The biggest speed improvement that I have seen in software came from turning off Visual Effects (true for all 3 releases).

Biggest HW speed improvement was replacing HDD with SSD (boot = 20 seconds; shutdown = 4 seconds). 0.25 millisecond access time really makes a difference!

[AM_SOS]

well yes ! in tune with my "install all updates" philosophy to keep the OS happy, i have basically installed all add - on's that i periodically keep getting.
so there are 4 themes, 2 extensions, 1 language pack, and 8 plugins.

is this the cause of the trouble ? how and which add ons do uninstall ?

yes, i agree that the booting up process doesn't seem affected in any serious way. its fast as before, but of course the shutting down is brilliantly so!

but then how come the slack in opening the navigation windows ? also right after booting up, i have to click several times before the "main menu" shows the list of programs etc.

ok now i dont know much about distros etc. so can someone please tell me what linux OS satisfies these requirements - has a decent GUI, reasonably fast, no requirement for desktop effects / compiz. basically it should be smooth and stable to use.
or perhaps there is some way to switch off some features to cut out on the bloat ;o)

thanks all !

[What Rights]

I personally noticed minor problems with 10.04 on my system.

Seriously it doesn't matter to me because my system does not play well with linux.

10.04 Is the best Ubuntu Distro for my system and im loving it.

Anyways 10.10 is going to be the best operating system with the new (love it or hate it) Gnome 3.0

[Linuxforall]

With all the extra fluff, when I run it against the so called hardcore Linux distros, Ubuntu boots faster than most, runs as fast and with way more convenience, compared to Karmic, this version is faster to boot and run, even my compiles take less time but thats expected with newer kernel. Ironically it feels quicker than SUSE 11.3 running latest kernel, go figure but I like SUSE as well, specially KDE version so thats a keeper too.

[libssd]

well yes ! in tune with my "install all updates" philosophy to keep the OS happy, i have basically installed all add - on's that i periodically keep getting.
so there are 4 themes, 2 extensions, 1 language pack, and 8 plugins.

is this the cause of the trouble ? how and which add ons do uninstall ?

yes, i agree that the booting up process doesn't seem affected in any serious way. its fast as before, but of course the shutting down is brilliantly so!

but then how come the slack in opening the navigation windows ? also right after booting up, i have to click several times before the "main menu" shows the list of programs etc.

ok now i dont know much about distros etc. so can someone please tell me what linux OS satisfies these requirements - has a decent GUI, reasonably fast, no requirement for desktop effects / compiz. basically it should be smooth and stable to use.
or perhaps there is some way to switch off some features to cut out on the bloat ;o)

thanks all !
The "4 themes, 2 extensions, 1 language pack, and 8 plugins" that you report sounds like a description of FireFox, not Linux. If so, start by disabling all extensions, then re-enabling them one at a time. I had a similar problem with FF, where System monitor reported the processor at nearly 100% for 30 seconds or so after starting FF. I narrowed the problem down to one specific plugin, and the problem disappeared. OR switch to a faster browser. On my netbook FireFox opens in 8 seconds, while Chrome opens in 2 seconds. See also the FireFox optimization tips in Netbook Optimization (below).

On the same hardware, I saw OS boot time drop from 55 seconds with Ubuntu 9.04 to 40 seconds with 10.04, which is a significant, if not eye-opening, improvement.

I suspect that the lag you report (which I have never noticed on a netbook with a measly Atom N270 processor) goes away as elements are cached. There is a simple solution to this: don't shut down/reboot your system unless absolutely necessary (such as after a kernel upgrade).

Unlike Windows, a Linux system should be able to run for weeks or months at a time without rebooting. If you are concerned about energy consumption, suspend when not using; this will put the machine into a very low energy state, and it will resume with less wear and tear on components than powering up.

I add two System Monitor mini-windows to my upper panel: one shows current memory usage, and the other shows CPU utilization. These provide continuous "at a glance" status reports on the state of the system. If System Monitor shows that you are using significant amounts of swap, this can dramatically slow down a system. There are two ways to reduce this: 1) add more memory or 2) tune filesystem parameters. The former costs $$$; the latter is free, but can be a little daunting at first. Here are a couple of good articles on speeding up any Linux system:


Netbook optimization (http://blog.bodhizazen.net/linux/netbook-optimization/) (You can pick and choose among his recommendations. Make sure you make backup copies of any files that you modify.)
Drastically Speed Up Your Linux System With Preload (http://techthrob.com/2009/03/02/drastically-speed-up-your-linux-system-with-preload/) ("drastically" is a bit of a stretch, but every little bit helps).


Finally (although the first and easiest thing you can do) in the Appearances preference, visual effects tab, "Normal" is the default setting in Ubuntu; change it to "None". Unless you have a fast graphics processor, the visual effects eye candy make a significant difference in response time.

[soldier1st]

are you using the 32bit or 64bit version of ubuntu? also did you install any prereleased/unsupported updates? also i noticed that your hdd is a 5400 rpm which is slow and 1 GB is enough for most tasks in ubuntu but if your running 64bit then 64bit is the problem as 64bit needs more memory.

[corrytonapple]

I will repost a quote from myself.

I think that in the first version, say 10, they add new features. In the second release of that version they perfect the new features.

[FallFromGrace]

am_sos

ubuntu is modern os with all the fluff to go along with it , and about the same speed as kubuntu. Xp has no compositor so if you want to compare ubuntu to windows you need to compare it to vista or 7.

Xubuntu and lubuntu have different file managers and are faster.

Chrome is faster than firefox and if you want to optimize firefox or flash go here
http://firefox-tutorials.blogspot.com/

adobe has optimized flash much more for window than for linux(no hw acceleration)blame adobe for that not linux.

Sharky

+1 +1 +1

[PhotonicGuy]

Chrome is faster than Firefox
Agree. I personally stopped using Firefox for browsing. I use only for web development. Chrome seems more light and faster

[AM_SOS]

hi all,

yes switched to chromium for the time being and yes its noticeably faster.

why doesn't it come as the default ubuntu browser instead of firefox ?

[libssd]

why doesn't it come as the default ubuntu browser instead of firefox ?
Three guesses:


Google Chrome isn't FOSS (probably the only reason needed)
Until recently, Chrome was in beta (and pretty buggy)
FireFox is better known, and has a much larger base of add-ins/extensions, etc.

[infamous-online]

Maybe its Firefox. Firefox has gotten kind of bloated and slow for me in both Windows 7 and Lucid.

Agreed, which is why I use Google Chrome is both Windows 7 and my Ubuntu, cause FF is too bloated.

[denham2010]

Anyways 10.10 is going to be the best operating system with the new (love it or hate it) Gnome 3.0

Sorry to spoil the party....Gnome 3.0 release has been delayed until Apr/May 2011 (last I heard), so don't expect it in Ubuntu until 11.04 at the earliest. More than likely will be 11.10.

[wkhasintha]

Dont think so