Ubuntu 12.04LTS upgrade ambivalence.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Unity 3D is too laggy on this Ubuntu 12.04 machine.
frown.gif
I thought a HD Radeon 5450 (512MB) would be enough but maybe not. So back to Unity 2D.
 
Originally Posted By: NJC
Unity 3D is too laggy on this Ubuntu 12.04 machine.
frown.gif
I thought a HD Radeon 5450 (512MB) would be enough but maybe not. So back to Unity 2D.


Just install Gnome's fallback mode and it'll look and feel darn near like Gnome 2: fast and surprisingly light on resources.
 
Yesterday I decided I was going to give 12.04 a shot on my Dell Mini 9 but I didn't get very far. This is the one that they sold a while ago with Ubuntu preinstalled and just a 4G SSD for storage. 12.04 wants 4.4G available before it will go. With the alternate install disk might I might be able to make it work but don't feel like bothering with it. It'll get Mint 12 like all the rest here as soon as I have the time. Ubuntu, see ya.
 
Originally Posted By: calvin1
It'll get Mint 12 like all the rest here as soon as I have the time. Ubuntu, see ya.


Mint may well need more space - It includes a good few things that Ubuntu doesn't include by default. Everything else about Mint *is* Ubuntu.
 
Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: calvin1
It'll get Mint 12 like all the rest here as soon as I have the time. Ubuntu, see ya.


Mint may well need more space - It includes a good few things that Ubuntu doesn't include by default. Everything else about Mint *is* Ubuntu.
The mint install came in at about 3.7G, just barely fit. By dropping all the Mate related stuff - Gnome 3 seems to run okay on it - I've got enough living room to make it usable.
 
Originally Posted By: NJC
Unity 3D is too laggy on this Ubuntu 12.04 machine.
frown.gif
I thought a HD Radeon 5450 (512MB) would be enough but maybe not. So back to Unity 2D.


Or try Gnome (shell) 3. Don't install it from the Ubuntu software center as it brings with it tons of (mostly) useless programs that are part of the desktop meta-package. Instead use the gnome PPA.

Gnome shell works just fine as far as response times on my 2.0GHz Pentium Dual Core with 4GB RAM and low end Intel GPU. Unity 3D by contrast was very laggy.

Any lag in the video below is from the screencaster software causing a bit of a slowdown in the system.
 
Originally Posted By: NJC
Thanks Buickman, I hadn't considered Gnome 3. It looks worthy of an experiment.
55.gif
Just watching your video now.

[EDIT: I now remember steering clear of Gnome 3.2, because even Linus Torvalds hated it. ]

Here's a comparison of Unity vs Gnome 3. http://lifehacker.com/5853099/linux-desktop-faceoff-gnome-3-vs-ubuntu-unity

Is anyone finding Unity quick on their Ubuntu 12.04 installation. If so, what specs are you using? Maybe I can justify a Radeon HD 6670 video card.


Be warned: Gnome-shell (Gnome 3) is a great departure from how you think about operating a desktop computer! Whether it be Gnome 3.2, 3.4 or anything else in the 3.x series I am pretty sure Linus will hate it and stick with XFCE. You can always use gnome-fallback, though, to closely simulate Gnome 2's interface and resource usage. (Gnome-shell is by no means a resource hog, but needs some pretty fancy-pants graphics horsepower to run correctly.) Some distro's are starting to use MATE, a fork of Gnome 2, and/ or Cinnamon, Linux Mint's fork of Gnome 3.

You'll also need some considerable graphics power to run Unity's default (Unity 3D). They have a Unity interface (Unity 2D) that doesn't require graphics acceleration, but they wrote it in Qt which takes up a lot of RAM (most of the rest of the OS use "GTK" instead of "Qt", so loading up a bunch of Qt libraries just to run the darn dock seems a little weird...).
 
Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more

Be warned: Gnome-shell (Gnome 3) is a great departure from how you think about operating a desktop computer! Whether it be Gnome 3.2, 3.4 or anything else in the 3.x series I am pretty sure Linus will hate it and stick with XFCE. You can always use gnome-fallback, though, to closely simulate Gnome 2's interface and resource usage. (Gnome-shell is by no means a resource hog, but needs some pretty fancy-pants graphics horsepower to run correctly.) Some distro's are starting to use MATE, a fork of Gnome 2, and/ or Cinnamon, Linux Mint's fork of Gnome 3.

You're right. Gnome 3.x is a drastic departure from traditional desktop conventions. It took me about 2 days to get used to doing things a new way but after using it for a week or two I've found it no worse and in some cases better as far as workflow management. The only complaint I have is the alt-tab behavior. In windows or KDE for that matter, alt-tab cycles through all open windows. In Gnome 3, even if I have 2 or 3 separate Chrome windows open (or any other application with multiple instances running) alt-tab brings up a Chrome "icon" that you have to then pick from the windows in a dropdown thumbnail. I think there is an extension coming out that addresses this.

There are two fall-back modes for Gnome 3. Gnome Classic which looks like Gnome 2 but still uses some bells and whistles (and Compiz) and then Gnome Classic that eliminates 3D acceleration and other fancy effects completely.

Once I put Gnome 3 on top of Ubuntu 12.04 I went back and removed Unity completely.

Quote:
You'll also need some considerable graphics power to run Unity's default (Unity 3D). They have a Unity interface (Unity 2D) that doesn't require graphics acceleration, but they wrote it in Qt which takes up a lot of RAM (most of the rest of the OS use "GTK" instead of "Qt", so loading up a bunch of Qt libraries just to run the darn dock seems a little weird...).


I've found it varies from reading other's experiences online. If you have a fairly recent Intel graphics solution Unity runs okay. Unity 3D ran without a hitch on my laptop with a Pentium Dual Core and a GMA965/X3100 Intel GPU which isn't by any stretch of the imagination anything other than a bargain basement GPU solution from '07-'08. That being said, Unity was not very responsive. Much slower than Win 7 with full Areo, Gnome 3, or KDE.

Those with ATI cards seem to be having the most trouble with Unity 3D not even running. The Nvidia users aren't without their issues either.
 
BTW for those that wanted to mess about the with Unity panel, you can install myunity:

sudo apt-get install myunity
 
My desktop bit the big one. So without a Windows machine to use I went ahead and upgraded the laptop. One release at a time. 11.04, then 11.10, then 12.04, and then I put in a few tweaks and I'm very comfortable with it now. I didn't think I would like it, but I do. I still can't print, but I haven't even looked into how to. I figure if I need to print something I email it to my wife and make HER do it, ha HA!
 
Originally Posted By: occupant
I still can't print, but I haven't even looked into how to.


If you use Ubuntu, I can't highly enough recommend that you sign up for and become active at ubuntuforums.org . *Very* friendly and knowledgeable folks there. Post up your printer issue there and I'll bet you find out what's what in a hurry.
 
Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: occupant
I still can't print, but I haven't even looked into how to.


If you use Ubuntu, I can't highly enough recommend that you sign up for and become active at ubuntuforums.org . *Very* friendly and knowledgeable folks there. Post up your printer issue there and I'll bet you find out what's what in a hurry.


I use the lighter xubuntu and found click the print icon added my wireless HP printer no issues. It works perfectly with my T30. My only struggle has been the wireless netgear PCMICIA card I need to configure at the command line.
 
Originally Posted By: NJC
I'm starting to like Ubuntu 12.04 with Unity. Chime in with your thoughts.


I like it, too; but I administer about a dozen boxen for friends, family and neighbours who've been used to Gnome 2.x for years and neither Gnome-shell nor Unity is going to sit well with any of them regardless of how cool it is. The people I know want and are used to a WIMP GUI: Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer.

To that end, I had tried 12.04 but found it far too bloated and heavy for the modest hardware being used by my friends/ family/ neighbours. I tried the Gnome fallback on Ubuntu but still was irked by the scroll-overlay (Again, *I* liked it but folks are going to have a heck of a time adjusting...) and the Apport bug-reporting utility was driving me NUTS reporting things that weren't even happening and trying to report bugs to a bug tracker that, after the final release of 12.04, was *no longer* filing bug reports!

I have settled on Arch using the Gnome-fallback session and am about to roll it out, replacing the Debian 6 and Ubuntu 11.04 installs I have running. Arch is not for the uninitiated, inexperienced, non-technical or easily-intimidated to set up (consider Ubuntu like buying a car with a bunch of bells and whistles from a lot, and Arch like ordering car parts from a supplier to meet your own design and specs, and assembling it yourself. You WILL Know how this thing works by the time it gets running!) but once it is running it is about the perfect distro for a fella like me.
 
I like 12.04 on my old-ish laptop (new one got win 7), but with Gnome GUI and not Unity. Unity looked a bit too Kindergarten-ish for me and felt so, too...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top