Ubuntu + Compiz = As bad as Vista
I know its taboo to knock Ubuntu but **** it. While it may be fashionable to say "Switch to Linux" its a little disingenuous to claim it will be a silver bullet to performance issues.
I've been running Ubuntu 7.10 side by side with Vista for a while (6 months) now and much as I hate to admit it, I've ended up back with Vista. Why?
Firstly, note I'm a laptop user and that I run with Compiz enabled.
- Firefox is slower under Compiz than Vista due to crappy text AA implementation.
- Power management on Ubuntu sucks donkey gonads. 3 hibernates and I have to reboot.
- Wireless Networking is so damned unreliable, and Ive seen this with a range of wireless cards.
- Office software. Between numerous crashes and bugs in both Open Office and KOffice I was almost at the point of digging out a 1990s version of Wordperfect Office and running it under Wine.
- Having to recompile video drivers every time X was updated (yeah yeah, I know theres a binary version but it takes a while before its the latest version).
- So many little niggles such as Compiz/Emerald segfaulting every few sessions; it running hotter than Vista; sudo/root password requirements *sometimes* being as bad as UAC;buggy keyring etc etc.
So while Ubuntu might perform better in some senses, I actually found my *productivity* far higher with Vista. SAD but true
All the above said though Ive been VERY happy with 7.04 for my HTPC and am running 7.10 server on a few machines without complaint but for the desktop....theres still no replacement for XP.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
