Comparing different desktop environments on Ubuntu in terms of speed using fgl_glxgears

Not one test of what is a major Free Softwware Desktop, KDE, heaps of tests of GNOME based desktops, even Openbox and TWM, but not even a nod in the direction of KDE

People's reasons for ignoring KDE are often a bit strange. To me the most baffling one I have seen a few times is that it reminds them too much of Windows.

I can understand reasons like people still holding a grudge about KDE declaring itself ready for use when it was still a long way from it, but "too much like Windows"? No.

I like KDE but its just too resource hungry for my machines, while pretty much all the gnome based stuff and unity run fine on my older machines with the eye candy on.

This may be part of the reason KDE gets ignored, I dont know why it seems sluggish on my machines memory usage is not onerous considering the amount of features you get and you would think 4GB ram and a dual processor would be enough. Ive tried a newer Radeon card in it instead of my older NV6800, which wasnt an improvement in fact it got worse when using the Radeon 5770 but then it wasn't that suprising since the catalyst drivers are far behind Nvidia in performance.

I really think someone needs to work on an official optimised KDE Lite, which is something I see requests for posted a lot across the net.

Quoting:Not one test of what is a major Free Softwware Desktop, KDE,

@TA, Didn't you see his lame reason ? I don't know why he didn't try to find a different repository, a mirror somewhere else.

Quoting:Note: Sorry I could not review KDE (repository in my country is broken), and all tests were done without enabling anything special e.g vsync etc.

Over all, he ends up with a useless comparison. He could have easily formatted the results in a nice table for the reader instead of jumping all over to make a quick comparison.

Any ways, he does make a good point by saying

Quoting:As I said earlier, there are many other things determining the efficiency of a desktop system.

Which is very true. The best system is a balanced over all system that is best suitable to the needs and requirements of its users. I believe KDE is the one that furnishes the most and best for the majority of users. It is in a league by itself.

Sorry about KDE guys. Some of the packages did not get downloaded in my country's repository due to 404 error. Other repositories are unbearably slow. Due to impatience, I could not hold this post for few more days. I would like to see other's results too.

Quoting:I really think someone needs to work on an official optimised KDE Lite, which is something I see requests for posted a lot across the net.

@Koriel,

Like there are many reasons to determine the efficiency of a desktop, there are many reason why a desktop does not perform optimally.

4GB is twice what I have on my machine with Intel Atom 330 with nVidia Ion. That is plenty enough for KDE to run really well without any issues with responsiveness. The problem must be some where else

The multiple reasons KDE might be running slow that I am aware of are:

1. Bad or badly supported graphics card driver. Biggest culprit.

2. Old slow CPU. I doubt you have a slow CPU since it does support 4GB memory

3. Bad support of 3D rendering. Turning off any desktop effects would help tremendously.

4. You might have Semantic Search indexing turned on. Although it has gotten better with latest releases, it still consumes quite a bit of CPU during the initial run of indexing. Turning them off will help quite a bit.

5. Bad KDE distro.

6. Very finicky user. :-)

Could you give some specifics about your machine?

Ive tried pretty much all the above, Every KDE4 install I ever do gets all the search and indexing malarkey and effects disabled doesn't really make a huge difference other than free up ram, im more intrested in latency/response which just seems sluggish compared to say cinnamon which is zippy on my machine I wont even compare it to xfce which obviously just flies but then it was designed to do just that on older machines so that would be an unfair comparison.

Nvidia only ceased support of my card on the latest driver which means I wont benefit from any of the recent major performance improvements with the 310 experimental driver which is a shame as I was hoping that would help improve things so I may just have to bite the bullet and try and find a spare $200 bucks for a mid range NVidia graphics upgrade as im pretty sure its graphics that is the problem as dragging a window is not a smooth experience must be something kwin doesnt like about my setup.

My Mint KDE experience was not stellar so I normally use Mageia 2 (which is definitely more responsive than the Mint experience) when im testing my software on KDE4.

@fettoosh -

Now that I have allowed one (1) machine to venture into KDE land (Linux Mint with KDE 4.9), I wonder if there is a "Speed me up, Scotty" tutorial for it.

I haven't pushed it all that hard yet, and it doesn't seem all that bad, still -- it is a 5 year old celeron notebook with 4GB of ram (and a 5400 rpm hard drive).

Oh -- Lest I forget ----

What the heck is wrong with chopped liver?

Not as good as a properly prepared liver and onions (yum), but not so bad.

@Koriel: I've found GNOME3 + Unity to be more resource intensive than KDE 4.x. My home machine also have 4GB of RAM. KDE 4.x even runs well on my netbook with 2GB, particularly with nepomuk and akonadi disabled. I prefer Xfce which does use fewer resources. Lately I've given up on LXDE because I need Hebrew support more and more and LXDE just doesn't have it. Xfce does, though some of their translations are, well.... humorous.

Quoting:What the heck is wrong with chopped liver?

Jewish style chopped chicken livers (with the onions and egg in there, of course) is delicious, or was back when I ate meat. When I learned most of my stomach problems came from eating meat back when I was in my mid '20s I gave it up but it sure wasn't because of taste.

Fortunately I can tolerate fish now and again so I haven't had to give up lox or herring or sable plate.

Quoting:"Speed me up, Scotty" tutorial

@Dino,

I really didn't need to do that on any of the machines I routinely use, and it was always tolerable on test machine(s) after doing what I suggested above.

But here are links that I have seen but didn't really do any of the suggestions because I try to keep my machines as simple as possible and pretty close to the default. Why fix it if ain't broken.

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3 - video

Google is your friend

Quoting:Not as good as a properly prepared liver and onions (yum), but not so bad.

Fresh Raw lam liver with Salt, Cinnamon, All Spice and fresh onions on Pita bread used to be my favorite. :-) It is a Lebanese delicacy.

There is a huge amount of overlap between Lebanese and Israeli cuisine. Between that and the huge expatriate Lebanese Christian community in the Raleigh area where I lived for 14 years I do have an appreciation for Lebanese food. It doesn't, and never has, extended to raw meat in any form.

Raw lamb liver? That's one I haven't tried.

Quoting:extended to raw meat in any form.

Raw meat is popular in Lebanon, but it has to be same day butchered lamb meat.

You must have heard of Kibbeh Nayyeh, Nayyeh means raw.

See this

Quoting:One of the most revered traditional breakfasts in Lebanon is a platter of raw liver, raw lamb muscle meat and raw liyyeh, sheep tail fat. Middle-Eastern sheep are a particular breed with tails that grow to a massive size. I’ve heard it said that up to one quarter of the sheep’s weight could come from its tail. The tail is pure, soft, white fat. For breakfast, along with the raw meat and liver, the liyyeh is sprinkled with salt and pimento and eaten with bread. It’s not for the faint of heart, especially the liver, but the initial reaction subsides when you take the plunge and eat some. I personally find that the flavour of liver, or anything for that matter, is milder when the food is raw.

Sorry about KDE guys. Fixed using different repository.