Ubuntu Unity Proves Very Slow To KDE, GNOME, Xfce, LXDE

[pszilard]

yet another content-mill-style post

FFS, I'm so fed up with these misguiding "benchmarks". Michael, if you want to run a one man content-mill, would you mind doing it on Windows instead of Linux. Let's face it: the Linux community has so little performance benchmarking available that such articles which aim to "prove" things and end up being a pile of cow dung just do sooo much more bad than good.

[boast]

Actually on my PC AMD IGP HD 4250 with Catalyst driver, KDE's both options gives almost same performance. Don't have unity to test although.

http://openbenchmarking.org/result/1...Rrd2lu&compare

Doesn't that, like Martin said on his blog, become more of a hardware limited issue than software with a 4250?

[Tiger_Coder]

Actually on my PC AMD IGP HD 4250 with Catalyst driver, KDE's both options gives almost same performance. Don't have unity to test although.

http://openbenchmarking.org/result/1207268-SU-KUBUNTUX640,1207268-SU-1207268SU29:a3VidW50dXg2NGxpZ2h0bWFyazI2anVseXJhZGVvbg,1204286-BY-KUBUNTUX660:a3VidW50dV94NjRfbGlnaHRtYXJrXzI4X2Fwcmls,1207263-SU-KUBUNTUX667:a3VidW50dXg2NGxpZ2h0bWFyazI2anVseWZnbHJ4X3dpdGhvdXRrd2lu&compare

[thechef]

I switched to gnome after the release of KDE4.

Seeing that KDE4 now recovered and that the GNOME stack is no longer satisfying performance-wise, I'm happy to use this Desktop Environment again.

[mrugiero]

Never used Xubuntu, so I would not have known. On Fedora it is off by default, and I also believe that is the default of the DE itself.

Yes, DE's default is off for compositing.

[Rigaldo]

Actually, Xfce does that to - it has an option to display full screen overlay windows directly, just like KDE does. You can also turn the compositor off as Artemis3 suggested, but that is not the only option.

Ok, good to know then. I'm glad it also has this feature.

[Hamish Wilson]

No, the compositor is turned on by default in Xubuntu, which is why the benchmarks show lower FPS with XFCE than LXDE. Perhaps testing with both compositor on and off should clarify this. I rather use my desktop with the compositor off, the menu shadows and transparency of objects are not worth the tearing in videos and fewer FPS.

Never used Xubuntu, so I would not have known. On Fedora it is off by default, and I also believe that is the default of the DE itself.

It's a bit different, I don't have XFCE in front of me right now to tell for sure, but in KDE you check a check-box once and you're done. In XFCE you'd have to go there every time you want to change it(or set a keyboard shortcut), but KDE does the switching on and off automatically(also it affects only the window I think, so if you have other screens where different apps are running they should be normal)(Also, from my understanding, KWin doesn't completely switch compositing off, only the effects for the fullscreen app, so it's kinda different).

Actually, Xfce does that to - it has an option to display full screen overlay windows directly, just like KDE does. You can also turn the compositor off as Artemis3 suggested, but that is not the only option.

[Rigaldo]

Do the benchmarks with a window instead of fullscreen, and the truth will come out. I often play rpg games windowed, as the need to browse documentation online comes very often. Also, the time KDE takes to boot is absurd, even worse than gnome3, which in itself is quite unbearable.

I was mostly kidding. But I believe it's worth to mention that KDE has a keyboard shortcut to turn off compositing on and off at will still
And I disagree about gnome 3, KDE does take some time to load indeed, but gnome 3 loads very fast for me. Also, I don't think they affect anything before the display manager is started anyways(I count the time after the "flicker" that shows the DM/xorg starts ). And Gnome 3 isn't bad at all. I'd elaborate, but I'm afraid I might write pages ......

Its the same with XFCE (a check box to turn on/off compositor). Only the gnome developers would think of the absurd...

It's a bit different, I don't have XFCE in front of me right now to tell for sure, but in KDE you check a check-box once and you're done. In XFCE you'd have to go there every time you want to change it(or set a keyboard shortcut), but KDE does the switching on and off automatically(also it affects only the window I think, so if you have other screens where different apps are running they should be normal)(Also, from my understanding, KWin doesn't completely switch compositing off, only the effects for the fullscreen app, so it's kinda different).

[Artemis3]

Ubuntu and Unity aren't the same thing.

Ubuntu defaults to Unity, and the graphical installer won't let you choose. In support channels "Ubuntu" implies you are using Unity. This is unfortunate and i personally don't like it, but at least ppl can still join (K,X,L)buntu channels.

I advise people to use the "Ubuntu MinimalCD" and choose the desktop they like. It is pretty much the same as Debian netinstall. (tip: Lubuntu is actually called LXDE Ubuntu desktop or such in the tasksel :P)

[Artemis3]

I wouldn't call that "to tweak KDE". You only need to check an option in system configuration.

Its the same with XFCE (a check box to turn on/off compositor). Only the gnome developers would think of the absurd...