Well, I reinstalled Ubuntu...

[Quake]

To follow up on my post here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=257387, I reinstalled ubuntu to see if drapper is more responsive...

Well my conclusion is that it's better but I don't feel the gui is fast enough. For exemple, when I open Evolution, it draws it piece by piece, when I browse thru the menus, it feels sluggish. And that happens for a lot of application such as Listen, Firefox... Don't know if it's because gnome is "bloated", because KDE claims a low end computer can run their desktop quite well http://kde.org/screenshots/images/3.5/02-systeminfo.png (I wish I had a video camera to film what I'm saying)
I installed Nvidia GLX and even tried to enable the composite extension.

Other then that. Ubuntu is going in the right track, I liked the live cd installation as you could browse the web while it was installing it. But I did wish that It had more options such as where you want to modify the MBR.

As for the multimedia part, it's getting there. I was amazed that I could view a HD 480i quicktime trailer in linux with no problem while in Windows, it's strugling! And now they are no problems viewing DVDs with 5.1 surround sound. I even have to say that the quality was superb compared to Windows.

I also like the fact that it found my NTFS partition without no configuration...

But what's bothering me is the Flash sound delay. I can't watch flash video sites such as youtube.com or dailymotion.com. I tried several suggestions in the forums but it didn't work. So I guess I have to wait for Flash 9 *Whenever it's going to come out...*

I just wish the gui wasn't so sluggish...

[pelle.k]

Yeah, it would be nice if you could install the mbr to a partition from the live-cd. that's why i've been avoiding it. that's a shame because the live cd install is so damn quick compared to the "alternate" install disk.

Also, i think (among other things) one of the reasons dapper is slow, is cairo 1.0.4.
I run cairo 1.2.4 in arch linux, with many other bleeding edge packages of course, and i can tell you - though i'm still using gnome 2.14, it's blinding fast. I'm still surprised when nautilus opens up at the exact instant i click an icon or something. This wasn't the case a couple of months ago. Back then it was a little slow, like gnome in dapper.

I say this; With gnome 2.16, cairo 1.2.4 and the new nvidia driver, things are gonna be flyin'!

I haven't had any problems with youtube in dapper though. But finally flash is going to be ALSA! :) (freebsd users are going to have a hard time getting it to work though...)

[Lord Illidan]

Flash 9 comes out ...Duke Nukem Forever is at version 2... And Service Pack 3 for Vista has been released..

[Quake]

Pelle.k, is the difference of performance between that Arch distro and ubuntu that noticeable?

About youtube, so you say the audio is synched perfectly with the video?

And I also hope that someone with maybe the same system requirement can record a video showing the responsiveness of gnome...

[Brunellus]

Pelle.k, is the difference of performance between that Arch distro and ubuntu that noticeable?

About youtube, so you say the audio is synched perfectly with the video?

And I also hope that someone with maybe the same system requirement can record a video showing the responsiveness of gnome...
Even though we all know that Ubuntu is not ready for the desktop, I suspect there's a graphics driver at fault somewhere here.

Also, evo is notorious for piecemeal drawing.

If you want KDE, why not use Kubuntu?

[Quake]

If you want KDE, why not use Kubuntu?

I was just wondering if KDE would be faster... I prefer Gnome.

If you think it's a video problem, here's my xorg.conf:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Mon May 15 13:23:42 PDT 2006

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 6 7 8 9"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "EN-775e"
HorizSync 30.0 - 68.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 85.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x]"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "NVIDIA Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x]"
Monitor "EN-775e"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

[maniacmusician]

is it faster when Composite is disabled? My computer f*cks up whenever I enable composite, it's a wreck. that's just my drivers, i guess.

[pelle.k]

Your xorg.conf looks perfect.

KDE isn't much snappier than gnome. At least not to me. I use them both on a regular basis. I tend to prefer KDE most of the time though.

Composite is required if you wan't to run XGL, or if you wan't extra eye candy in kde (without xgl). I does not speed up your desktop though. If anything it can cause problems with flash among other things. But as i said, i haven't had such problems in dapper yet. (I'm using the flashplugin-nonfree)

As for the videos in youtube, aren't those acctually movies (avi/mpeg)?
If so, maybe your plugin is the one to blame. Right click it when the video is playing (in the player window) to see what plugin firefox is using...

[chaosgeisterchen]

KDE and GNOME really settle the score.. hmh.. but GNOME 2.16 seems to be somehow faster I assume.

Overall I love KDE and am not very fond of GNOME so far.

[Minyaliel]

With a little tweaking I find that KDE is faster than Gnome. But that might also be because I don't use the default menu bar that comes with KDE, replacing it with Kuartet. Also, KDE does have the best apps, in my opinion.

[Quake]

As for the videos in youtube, aren't those acctually movies (avi/mpeg)?
If so, maybe your plugin is the one to blame. Right click it when the video is playing (in the player window) to see what plugin firefox is using... Sites such as youtube.com, dailymotion.com and video.google.com, uses Flash videos.

And Btw, themes seems to make a difference, I use IndustrialTango and the desktop seems faster...

[Brunellus]

Sites such as youtube.com, dailymotion.com and video.google.com, uses Flash videos.

And Btw, themes seems to make a difference, I use IndustrialTango and the desktop seems faster...
pixmap themes seem to be slower/more RAM intensive than SVG themes?