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I have HP Mini 2133 netbook, with 1200MHz processor and 2GB of RAM. I am currently using the normal Ubuntu. But, Flash videos (on YouTube, etc.) do not play smoothly. I tried all optimizations, but the videos still don't play smoothly.

Will changing to Xubuntu help play videos faster? I have the doubt because I am not sure whether the smoothness of Flash videos depends on processor speed or RAM size.

Thanks in advance.

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    If you are considering switching to Xubuntu, you may also want to take a look at Lubuntu. The latter uses LXDE and has a similar goal of being light on system resources, and from I understand it uses even less RAM than Xubuntu does. Jan 11, 2012 at 23:22
  • It depends on your CPU a "1200mhz processor" doesn't say anything at all, which exact CPU is it. I have a netbook a dual core Atom 1.6ghz CPU it chokes when playing Youtube's 720p videos but 480p is ok. Jan 12, 2012 at 0:07

6 Answers 6

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Your choice of Desktop environment is unlikely to affect flash performance.

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Well... with those specs, I wouldn't even hesitate to question xubuntu. Even I, with a 2.3GHz Dual-core processor and 4GB RAM am considering xubuntu for its raw speed.

You can always download the xfce desktop environment from the USC and test it on your current system.

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I recently switched from Xubuntu 11.10 to Ubuntu 11.10, and also encountered degraded flash performance. Logging out and switching from Unity to Unity 2D corrected the issue.

Running an AMD N930 (2GHz, quad core) with a low end laptop radeon chip.

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Flash is most likely being slow because of either your CPU or graphics card. It may not be necessary to move to xubuntu. If you are not doing so already you could give Unity-2D a go which could free up more graphics power for video. You can select Unity-2D from the login screen.

edit by Michal: I think it is not related to hardware as I have the same problems and when I install windows XP, then flash videos play smooth in all resolutions... So it is clear the flash module in linux or other parts of linux OS IS CRAP

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    Thanks, but I am already using Unity-2D, which came preinstalled with Ubuntu 11.10.
    – linux_noob
    Jan 11, 2012 at 23:29
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Switching to Xubuntu will not improve Flash performance.
Consider using the FlashVideoReplacer addon:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashvideoreplacer/

http://www.webgapps.org/add-ons/flashvideoreplacer

... or a stand alone program called Minitube:

http://flavio.tordini.org/minitube

Both play plash videos without actually using Adobe Flash player, and should perform better.

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For YouTube you could use the FlasVideoReplacer Add-on to play videos in a standalone player (Totem, VLC...) or force YouTube videos to WebM.

Flash is pretty crappy and therefore I'm Flash free since 1,5 years.

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