Is linux really this pokey?!

[nbob]

Hello. I am operating a dual-boot with windows XP and Ubuntu. Have I overlooked something in setting up Ubuntu or is it just slower than Windows? My system performance with Ubuntu is poor and I don't know why.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

You'll probably need to give a better description and more details about any problems you are experiencing before anyone can help you.

When you say slow, do you mean that it boots slowly, graphics are slow, or that apps run slowly, or do you mean that downloads and the internet are slow?

I'd think that if your machine is configured correctly, Ubuntu should run as fast, or faster than XP.

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome
Without knowing a little more about your system and whatnot it's hard to say, but in my experience the majority of new install problems are caused by not having the correct video drivers in use. Please open a terminal window and type these commands out, paste the output here.

lspci |grep VGA

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf |grep Driver

I see ozar beat me to it.

[nbob]

Here is some information on my system: Running Ubuntu 9.04 (jaunty jackalope). I have a 2 GHz intel CPU (single core) and 1.3 GB of RAM.

I spend most of my time playing card games on Pogo and listening to music with Pandora. I had to install Java and Flash to use these applications. So perhaps there is something wrong with my java or flash. The applications run ok, but are slow. My music on Pandora, for example, will cut out when I'm loading up a card game. It also takes awhile to load up a card game.

The system seems to be ok with general browsing- there don't seem to be any long delays.

[nbob]

Hi Mike. Here is what the terminal came up with:

nick@nick-desktop:~$ lspci |grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)

nick@nick-desktop:~$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf |grep Driver
nick@nick-desktop:~$

(nothing for the second command)

[deano_ferrari]

You could try listing kernel modules asscoaited with hardware:

/sbin/lspci -k

A more refined search for VGA module:

/sbin/lspci -k |grep VGA -A 2

This will output first line with match + next 2 lines. For example I get

dean@linux:~> /sbin/lspci -k |grep VGA -A 2
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Mobility Radeon X300]
Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci
Kernel modules: fglrx, radeonfb