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The problem is with Software Center. It takes about 8-9 minutes to open and this seems very slow to me. How can I make Software Center start up faster?

My PC: RAM: 512MB

CPU: Intel Celeron 2.27Ghz

Graphic card: nVidia GeForce FX5200 (with the 173 drivers) Driver installed with command

sudo apt-get install nvidia-173-updates

OS: Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)

Internet connection: about 4Mbps

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I think the Ubuntu Software Center is quite demanding in terms of CPU usage and bandwidth. So if you have an low-spec CPU and a slow net you will experience slowness. But 4-5 min does seem too slow. Could you update your question to provide your CPU/RAM and (average) net speed? – vasa1 Dec 29 '12 at 16:21

2 Answers

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Did you tried starting it from Terminal? Does it get delayed even starting from Terminal?

Try starting Software Center from Terminal and use following command to measure the Time it takes to get loaded fully.

software-center --measure-startup-time

In my system running 12.04 it took 6.71236896515 seconds

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I got from software-center -h or software-center --help. This information is not available in man page as you said. – Pras Dec 30 '12 at 15:18
On my system: 92.0647070408 seconds – Sebastian Dec 31 '12 at 15:00
Which part takes more time to get loaded ? – Pras Dec 31 '12 at 15:09
When I open up Software Center, a loading animation on the center of the window appears... And then it freezes. After 8 minutes, the software center works normally... – Sebastian Jan 2 at 11:32
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I have just been looking into this. I think Software Center is slow because it is so big.

I was advised to install Synaptic instead, and it is faster for me on a low spec machine.

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What is Synaptic? – Sebastian Dec 29 '12 at 11:53
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This isn't a real answer. You are assuming that OP his device is slow. And although Synaptic is a handy app, it differs too much from the software center to be a real replacement. And synaptic doesn't offer the same stuff. @Sebastian synaptic is a package manager program, not quite the same as ubuntu software center. – Dr_Bunsen Dec 29 '12 at 12:09
@EliahKagan one can, but one will see that it is very different, and one has to know what one wants. Or else one is never going to find what one wants. – Dr_Bunsen Dec 29 '12 at 15:59
@Dr_Bunsen Except for paid apps (which you can install but not buy in Synaptic), I don't think this is a realistic problem. It's usually very easy to search for the names of packages if you know some other name that's widely used to describe the software. Since search engines let you start out with even less information, I think many users already search for package names before they install software with USC, and most users who don't would have no trouble doing so. I agree that USC provides distinct advantages and I'm glad we have it, but if it's not working right (e.g., it's very slow)... – Eliah Kagan Dec 29 '12 at 16:14

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