# Die-Hard Geeks, Let's Talk Linux! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 17, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587 "2011-12-17T22:55:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/41 "2012-03-16T19:47:07Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > Linux can completely eliminate hard drive latency? howzat? So frustrate one that you dont use the computer anymore šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/42 "2012-03-16T19:53:18Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > Linux can completely eliminate hard drive latency? howzat? Greener-pastures idealism is also integrated into the Linux kernel. Allow me some hyperbole folks, but Linuxā€™s response-time and workflow efficiency makes Windows look like a straight-jacketed sloth. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/43 "2012-03-16T19:54:43Z")
So how do I get mine to do that? Because right now Windows 7 is far more responsive to my delicate loving touch than Linux. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/44 "2012-03-16T20:54:31Z")
I donā€™t know, a hardware thing? My 4 year old laptop running Ubuntu with lots of pretty extra graphics bells and whistles turned on is far snappier than any current Win 7 machine Iā€™ve used. Win 7 is better than XP is, but still noticeably sluggish. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/45 "2012-03-16T20:56:33Z")
Well when I use Ubuntu itā€™s only getting a fourth of the RAM I have available, as has been mentioned. Thoughts on if I were to up the RAM through the virtual machine if that would increase responsiveness? ---
**Author:** ![SlowMindThinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@SlowMindThinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlowMindThinking)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/46 "2012-03-16T21:56:02Z")
I never saw this thread before, but I have been using Linux for a long time and perhaps can be of use recommending software. Iā€™ll let you know my biases upfront here. Among other things, I am a physicist whose job includes developing software that runs on Linux, and have a dual boot PC at work. I only use Windows when I have to work on a group document or presentation. (I used to develop software on Windows, and before that, Unix. ) At home, I have an iMac, and a dual boot Linux/Windows machine. I got the iMac to try my hand at writing apps for iPhones. I just started that. Linux software (non-development) I use regularly: Firefox and Thunderbird (and no, there is no difference in speed. On a virtual machine, it is possible you are going through two virus scanners, which would slow things down.) KMyMoney (I used GnuMyCash before that) I even got a port for my iMac. It is free, and does all I need. Kate - a great little text editor LibreOffice (does everything MS Office does with different fonts. It is not as good, but the price difference is huge. I know nothing about the one you pay for.) also KWrite digiKam I donā€™t use this regularly, but I found Gimp for photo editing to be easier to use than Photoshop. Games (just things like solitaire, chess, and the clanbomber clone All of them are better on Linux, with more variations and of course, they are free) KCalc (not that it matters much) What I donā€™t do on Linux or with Linux available software: My taxes. I bought TurboTax for my iMac. Before that, on my PC. My GPS watch software. (The iMac version didnā€™t support notes, and there isnā€™t a Linux version) ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/47 "2012-03-16T23:56:49Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Started with Suse, now on Ubuntu but thinking about jumping elsewhere because I _hate_ their latest desktop. Why not just use a different GUI instead of switching your OS? Thatā€™s actually one of the greatest advantages of Linux - that you can use different GUIs on the same Linux, or the same GUIs on different distros of Linux. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/48 "2012-03-17T06:24:42Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > Well when I use Ubuntu itā€™s only getting a fourth of the RAM I have available, as has been mentioned. Thoughts on if I were to up the RAM through the virtual machine if that would increase responsiveness? Poke around on those menu items across the top, see if you can find System -\> Administration -\> System Monitor or something similar. There is a ā€œResourcesā€ tab that shows memory and swap usage. See if you can get any insights from that. Itā€™s certainly possible that you could have some swappiness trouble. There might also simply be a pile of overhead just running a VM in a Windows host. Donā€™t know how that might compare with a Linux VM in a Linux host, which is what I did. (And remember, I did mine on an ooooold small slow machine with highly non-optimal circumstances.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/49 "2012-03-17T10:05:48Z")
Iā€™ve been dual-booting Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows XP on my little Atom netbook for a couple of years now - and I find that my usage is swinging toward Linux - On this machine, the user experience is superior - faster boot, faster response times in general, greater stability, greater configurability. Iā€™ve also been using VirtualBox (yes, on a 1.6GHz Atom with 1GB RAM) - and although itā€™s not blisteringly fast when I run a full desktop GUI inside it, I was still quite pleased with the performance - the other day I had one VM running SME Server, testing a LAMP setup, another running the latest version of Ubuntu and a third running some obscure Amiga or BeOS descended OS, just to have a look. It all seemed quite fine. I use Windows 7 at work, and itā€™s quite good - certainly better at boot time than XP , but Iā€™m not altogether sure Iā€™ll bother with another Windows OS at home. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/50 "2012-03-19T18:06:21Z")
Well I bumped the RAM up to 2GB for the VM and now everything does indeed respond much more quickly. However, there is still some lag when I do things in the GUI, like launching applications or trying to view my settings, or my System Monitor or Dash Home. It certainly is still not more responsive than Windows and certain things are noticeably still less so. Also, apparently YouTube viewing will require I use Windows, as YouTube videos in Ubuntu, no matter how short and low quality will always be choppy. Now with the system monitor open I see pretty much zero signs of swappiness. The indicator stays flat on 0%. I donā€™t know what else to really do. ---
**Author:** ![SlowMindThinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@SlowMindThinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlowMindThinking)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/51 "2012-03-20T00:09:02Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > Well I bumped the RAM up to 2GB for the VM and now everything does indeed respond much more quickly. However, there is still some lag when I do things in the GUI, like launching applications or trying to view my settings, or my System Monitor or Dash Home. It certainly is still not more responsive than Windows and certain things are noticeably still less so. > > Also, apparently YouTube viewing will require I use Windows, as YouTube videos in Ubuntu, no matter how short and low quality will always be choppy. > > Now with the system monitor open I see pretty much zero signs of swappiness. The indicator stays flat on 0%. I donā€™t know what else to really do. I believe that is because you are running through the VM. One of my daughterā€™s has no issues watching video on her little notepad with Ubuntu. You might see about turning off all firewalls and virus scanners within Ubuntu, since you are already running them in Windows. ---
**Author:** ![BowlOfDucks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BowlOfDucks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BowlOfDucks)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/52 "2012-03-20T08:25:26Z")
I was under the impression that unless your CPU and your motherboard had hardware support for virtualisation, then virtualisation would be performed in software with a fair performance hit. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/53 "2012-03-20T12:28:21Z")
You might try running the VM full screen. I believe certain graphics calls are virtualised when running in a window or ā€˜single window modeā€™ where both the VM and guest OS look like theyā€™re running together. If you make the VM full screen (and toggle back and forth with Command+Return or WindowsKey+ Enter, I believe) then the VM has more direct access to the hardware. I could also see the VM vendorā€™s responce would be: Play the video/flash/whatever in the native OS and use the VM for things that can only be done in the VM. You might try playing around with a Live Linux CD, to see if the performance is any betterā€¦I suspect youā€™ll find it is. Lastly, thereā€™s some support for hardware 3d accelerationā€¦you might see if that makes a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/54 "2012-03-20T13:13:02Z")
> [@BowlOfDucks](#): > > I was under the impression that unless your CPU and your motherboard had hardware support for virtualisation, then virtualisation would be performed in software with a fair performance hit. I might be getting the wrong end of the stick, but ā€˜virtualisation performed in softwareā€™ sounds like emulation, not virtualisation. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/55 "2012-03-20T16:21:52Z")
Bees, what VM software are you using? many have pretty poor graphics support, it may be that it is all software emulated and that is the slowness. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/56 "2012-03-20T18:02:35Z")
> [@rat\_avatar](#): > > Bees, > > what VM software are you using? many have pretty poor graphics support, it may be that it is all software emulated and that is the slowness. He said he was using VirtualBox. I use it to run a virtual Windows instance on my Ubuntu laptop at work, and I havenā€™t noticed any problems with YouTube there, but it could easily be that it doesnā€™t work as well the other way aroundā€“VirtualBox performance on Windows may be worse. I also run my media center PC on Ubuntu. The hardware is a fairly low-spec mini-PC (a slightly older version of [this Zotac box](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173021)), and it plays HD video smoothly with XBMC. I havenā€™t noticed any problem with YouTube videos on it, either. My guess is that itā€™s a problem with running VirtualBox on Windows. Iā€™d suggest trying it from a live CD to see if the problem is still there without the virtualization. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/57 "2012-03-20T18:55:34Z")
Purely by chance, the Ranting Dane (my cubicle neighbor) was talking VirtualBox with another coworker a few minutes ago, and he mentioned something I had forgotten: guest additions. If you havenā€™t already installed them, check under the Devices menu in VirtualBox for an option to install Guest Additions. Among other things, I believe they include better video drivers, which may help. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/58 "2012-03-20T19:01:24Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Purely by chance, the Ranting Dane (my cubicle neighbor) was talking VirtualBox with another coworker a few minutes ago, and he mentioned something I had forgotten: guest additions. If you havenā€™t already installed them, check under the Devices menu in VirtualBox for an option to install Guest Additions. Among other things, I believe they include better video drivers, which may help. oof! By an order of magnitude! Plus moving data back and forth and improving mouse access. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/59 "2012-03-20T21:34:40Z")
**rat avatar** : I am using Oracle VirtualBox. **Unintentionally Blank** : Fullscreen is the only way Iā€™ve been running it. **Balance** : I have the guest additions installed already. I have not tried a Live CD though. Iā€™ll see what I can do about acquiring one and I have no doubt it will perform beyond my wildest expectations if I were to go that route. Iā€™ve been using Ubuntu as my ā€œnongaming OSā€, so booting from disk is going to become a pain in the ass if I want to go to Windows for gaming, then back to Ubuntu for everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587/60 "2012-03-20T22:51:52Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > I have not tried a Live CD though. Iā€™ll see what I can do about acquiring one and I have no doubt it will perform beyond my wildest expectations if I were to go that route. Iā€™ve been using Ubuntu as my ā€œnongaming OSā€, so booting from disk is going to become a pain in the ass if I want to go to Windows for gaming, then back to Ubuntu for everything else. Yeah, I donā€™t think youā€™d want to use it as a long-term solution. I meant to use it as a troubleshooting stepā€“if you see the same problems with the Live CD version, that eliminates the VM as the source. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-geeks-lets-talk-linux/606587.md?page=4)