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I'm a long time Linux advocate and user (since around '98). I rarely boot up Windows, but when I do, it's secretly frustrating to me how fast things seem to be. For example, when you type in Ubuntu (after typing in Windows), there seems to me to be a very slight but perceptible lag between key press and character appearance. This also seems to be true in window rendering (minimize/maximize) and so on.

The end result is that the Windows 7 desktop experience seems more performant and zippy compared to Ubuntu 11.x or 12.04 (I've comparison-tested both).

As a fan of Ubuntu and Linux, this bothers me. Is this lag caused by the extra layer that X windows brings? Is this what Wayland aims to address? Or, is it something else?

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closed as not constructive by Jorge Castro, Florian Diesch, enzotib, fossfreedom♦ Apr 2 '12 at 7:24

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1 Answer

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I think this may be more of an issue with hardware support on your specific computer - on every machine I've used Ubuntu and Windows on, Ubuntu has been faster in starting programs and booting up etc. It's only the Unity dash which seems to be slow when typing characters, but that's nothing to do with Linux - just some inefficient coding on the part of the Ubuntu devs I guess. But anyway it's supposed to be much sped up in 12.04 (which is only a month away!). :)

If you post hardware details then perhaps someone will find a technical solution to the speed issues on your machine.

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Ubuntu is generally much faster at booting and starting programs for me...it's just the UI and character rendering which seems slow. – jbwiv Apr 1 '12 at 21:05

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