Ubuntu slower than Windows 7?

[w1z4rd]

Have this hardware I am using as a spare workstation in my office. Its not great:

P4 3GHZ
512mb of RAM
80GB IDE Hard disk
On board el lamo GFX card

Now the machine runs as I expect with Win7, but with Ubuntu its dog slow... the mouse is jerky and when it does that it implies epic CPU load.

With Ubuntu I downloaded 9.10, installed it. Ran the updates, rebooted it, and its running slow (no extra fluff added).

Surely my hardware should run better 9.10?

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Graphics driver issues maybe? Also check your swap usage, that drive is dated and may be the culprit. You can configure your swap usage by adjusting the swappiness value (see http://guvnr.com/pc/optimise-swap-swappiness/).

Also take a screenshot of the system monitor (resources tab) and post it here.

 

[Ockie]

It also sounds very much like a graphics driver to me. When I first installed ubuntu on my Nvidia graphics machine, the mouse was extremely jerky and the screen would refresh in stages. When I looked @ my system monitor, my cpu load was 100% all the time. When I installed the driver it ran as smooth as a baby's bottom

 

[sn3rd]

Use top to check what is actually hogging CPU time. If it's Xorg, then I agree with graphics driver issues.

What graphics chip is on that motherboard?

Running 9.10, smoothly, on an Acer Aspire One A110L, which comparatively has a 1.6GHz Atom (with Hyperthreading), 512MB RAM, 8GB SSD and Intel GMA 950 onboard graphics.

 

[ponder]

Do you have Compiz running?

 

[DUDE!@##$%%]

I am windows 7 ultimate x86, and for the fun of it, i Installed ubuntu 9.10
and let me tell you, IT IS WAAAYYY FASTER THAN Windows.
so it must be a driver issue, although i have no knowlege whatsoever of Linux

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Good point ponder, and I also say its graphic drivers. In Linux a jerky mouse is indication that your not running the correct drivers and not disk IO. On my Aspire One, which has near 100% disk IO thanks to crap SSD, the mouse is still smooth even with IO. Its the only thing that does not go into messed up stat.

You can also open up a terminal and run "top". Check the "wait"

Example:
Cpu(s): 1.1%us, 0.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 98.3%id, 0.3%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st

This means that there are processes waiting for the disk. 0.3% is cool, > 40% is not cool

Oh, and post your motherboard make 'n model please.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

I am windows 7 ultimate x86, and for the fun of it, i Installed ubuntu 9.10
and let me tell you, IT IS WAAAYYY FASTER THAN Windows.
so it must be a driver issue, although i have no knowlege whatsoever of Linux

This is always the make or break with any users first experience with an OS - regardless of vendor.

One advantage on Linux is that you have way better legacy support and I would rather install Linux than even Windows2000 on an old rig. But then again, I find issues even under Linux with new hardware due to lack of support.

 

[DUDE!@##$%%]

not really, i have been using ubuntu for a few months, there is just so much less "clutter" or whatever if you know what i mean on linux...

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Well when you grow up you can join the big boys over here at Arch Linux

 

[koffiejunkie]

80GB IDE Hard disk....the mouse is jerky and when it does that it implies epic CPU load.

This sounds like your drive doesn't have DMA enabled. The jerky mouse is a classic symptom, even on Windows (although I'm by no means suggesting it's the only possibility). Try this in a terminal:

sudo hdparm -d /dev/hda

And if it tells you it's off, do:

sudo hdparm -d1 /dev/hda