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Condor Cluster
December 4th, 2011, 11:04 AM
I'm currently on 10.04, which is Gnome 2. The performance on my netbook is not bad at the moment :)

Looking to the future when/if I upgrade, the future Ubuntus will probably use Unity/Gnome 3.

The question is, do Unity and Gnome 3 require more powerful hardware to run well, as if this is the case, maybe Lubuntu or Xubuntu would be a better choice for netbookers next upgrade?

JRV
December 4th, 2011, 12:12 PM
I am running 11.10 on my Asus 901 with 2 gig RAM and a 64 gig high speed SSD. It seems to run about the same as 10.04 did.

Condor Cluster
December 4th, 2011, 01:21 PM
That's good to hear :)

I was looking at System Monitor/Resources, and it showed the CPU usage quite high when using a few apps at the same time (like Firefox works my CPU quite hard). Interestingly. the memory is only showing 300-400Mb of 2Gb used.

Do desktop environments use memory more than CPU? If this is the case, I have a lot of memory 'spare' for things like Gnome 3.
On the other hand, if it is CPU intensive, I may be out the running for future upgrades :( lol

ojdon
December 4th, 2011, 02:02 PM
I'd definately recommend either Xubuntu (If you want your netbook's desktop to have a very similar layout to your current Gnome 2 one) or if you're more bothered about speed then definitely give Lubuntu a blast!

Condor Cluster
December 4th, 2011, 02:11 PM
I just found a site that combines the DEs here (http://www.renewablepcs.com/about-linux/kde-gnome-or-xfce)

Seems to suggest Unity/Gnome 3 being quite CPU intensive compared to the rest.

The only thing I'm a bit concerned about with LXDE is that it will probably be more problematic to set-up compared to the default Gnome install. I can see sound issues and function keys etc not working out the box like they would with the mainstream Gnome Ubuntu.

Guess I'll wait till the next LTS comes out in April 2012, and try a Live CD (or USB key) of Lubuntu 12.04 :-k

Copper Bezel
December 4th, 2011, 05:19 PM
I don't have any problems with Shell on a netbook. What's your processor? I have two G of RAM, a 1.6 Ghz processor, and SSD storage. But 9.10 with Compiz, my machine was sluggish with ordinary Gnome 2 and Compiz before I upgraded the RAM. I really don't think there's a big difference between Compiz performance and Compiz / Unity or Gnome Shell / Mutter. (I will say that video under Shell has been a bigger performance drain than it was under Compiz, but Unity shouldn't have that problem.)

matt3839
December 4th, 2011, 08:05 PM
For a lightweight environment, the applications you're running also makes a difference.

For example, Firefox can be rather resource-hungry, so perhaps try a lighter browser like Midori (apt:midori) or Chromium (apt:chromium-browser).

Condor Cluster
December 5th, 2011, 05:06 PM
I've got a similar spec netbook as yours. It's a Sammy NC10, Atom CPU @ 1.6Ghz, not SSD though. I did upgrade the 1Gb RAM to 2Gb, but didn't notice a difference really.

I mainly use Firefox, Chrome, Clementine, Transmission, LibreOffice.

Firefox is a resource hog and slow, but works with nearly every website I've come across, plus I use the flv ripper add-on.

I will probably give LXDE a go on the next upgrade. Will all those apps I used under Gnome still work under LXDE, or do I have to use it's own 'lightweight' apps?

kio_http
December 5th, 2011, 06:13 PM
I've got a similar spec netbook as yours. It's a Sammy NC10, Atom CPU @ 1.6Ghz, not SSD though. I did upgrade the 1Gb RAM to 2Gb, but didn't notice a difference really.

I mainly use Firefox, Chrome, Clementine, Transmission, LibreOffice.

Firefox is a resource hog and slow, but works with nearly every website I've come across, plus I use the flv ripper add-on.

I will probably give LXDE a go on the next upgrade. Will all those apps I used under Gnome still work under LXDE, or do I have to use it's own 'lightweight' apps?

See this thread here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1889502). I tested all DE's on a netbook identical specs to yours but 2GB RAM, I have the best experience with KDE considering features and looks. If you go by this path you might like this threa (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1889034)d too, its about performance optimising.

Condor Cluster
December 7th, 2011, 07:16 PM
Hmm, I'm sure KDE has come on leaps and bounds, but I can't see it ever beating Gnome 2/LXDE on system resource usage, especially on old netbook hardware.

Might give Lubuntu or maybe Mint LXDE when my Lucid stops being supported.

Then again, I might just keep Lucid even after EOL, I mean if ain't broke and all that...

\\:D/