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Ubuntu 9.10 runs quite slugglish on my old laptop from 2004. Slower than Windows XP that was on there.

It has 512mb RAM and probably 1.2ghz (can't remember) CPU.

I have turned off Visual Effects under Appearance Preferences.

Are there any other tricks to get better performance, or do I just need a better computer to try Ubuntu?

Thanks

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    Try Windows 7 ;-)
    – Ivo Flipse
    Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 6:04
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    Try other distros. Ubuntu isn't all that great for slower computers. I've been using crunchbang (#!) and on boot it only uses ~70mb ram. I've only got a GB ram and it hasn't even used my swap once, even when I set half my RAM to virtual box.
    – Rob
    Commented Sep 13, 2011 at 15:47

3 Answers 3

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Gnome (the desktop environment that comes with the standard Ubuntu install) is a big resource hog, Try XFCE for better performance. You can install it via Synaptic, just grab the Xubuntu meta package (xubuntu-desktop). Then switch your session to XFCE at the login window. If you like it you can make it your default session.

You can also try LXDE, an even lighter desktop environment. Install the lxde package from Synaptic. And there's also the *box desktop environments like blackbox, openbox and fluxbox.

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  • You can use Fluxbox, too :) My Ubuntu with Fluxbox takes about 200-300MB RAM when fully loaded.
    – Ivan Petrushev
    Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 6:17
  • @Ivan Petrushev: What do you mean with 'fully loaded'? My Gnome uses less then 300MB right after start including Compiz. ^^
    – Bobby
    Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 8:40
  • Skype, Pidgin, audacious2, firefox, couple of urxvt's open... Maybe even Azureus with console UI :)
    – Ivan Petrushev
    Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 9:58
  • @Ivan Petrushev: Ahhh...okay, you win. ;) (Firefox, Pidgin, XChat, Evolution, 575MB).
    – Bobby
    Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 19:32
  • Openbox is what I've been using on #!, meaning to try others but don't want to break anything. Going to be installing again on the desktop instead of the netbook, though, so flux and XFCE are going to get used.
    – Rob
    Commented Sep 13, 2011 at 15:48
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You could try Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

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I went through a similar search for my netbook. I didn't really like the netbook remix. I tried Xubuntu, but it still seemed a bit slow at times. The fastest that I tried were crunchbang (openbox) and fluxbuntu (fluxbox).

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