Ubuntu!

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by Tenor CS

Been having problems with my Ubuntu install on my laptop lately. Youtube videos are temperamental and sometimes the audio stutters. Have 2 gb of RAM on the way. Currently running on 512. Anybody have ideas for tweaks? Or should the additional RAM help?

I would advise more RAM. 512mb should be enough, but may not give you desired performance.

If you want sheer speed and performance try Xubuntu. You can install the desktop package through synaptic package manager from System -> Administration menu. It's very simple and you easily find a tutorial on the "google machine."

I installed Xubuntu on my wife's laptop (1gb ram, 1.74 ghz pentium M) and the performance increase was incredible. Also, she has an ATI 128 mb video card; which Ubuntu has some issues with. The Xubuntu is a lot less taxing on the device and overall.

More on the video issues. Have you recently upgraded to a new version? I originally had 8.04, upgraded to 8.10 with no video issues. When I upgraded to 9.04 I started having huge video issues, slow downs, audio sync. I searched everywhere for resolution. I uninstalled codecs and video players (vlc, movie player, totem) and reinstalled to no effect.

I decided to back everything up and do a fresh install. Now my system is running flawlessly. The performance increase and faster boot time is astonishing!

My hypothesis; I think when I first got Ubuntu I was playing around a lot and doing things I didn't always understand (audio codecs, running scripts, etc.). I think this botched things up and after a few upgrades my system wasn't running optimally.