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I recently switched from Windows 7 Ultimate to Kubuntu 22.04 LTS on my 10-year-old HP laptop. I love it for a lot of reasons, except for the performance. Compared to Windows 7 running on the same hardware, apps take about 50% longer to launch. Google Chrome and Firefox in particular run all four cores up to 100% in System Monitor, essentially locking up the OS. I can run Konquerer with the exact same tabs open and it requires a fraction of CPU resources. Discover is slow and crashy. I haven't installed anything exotic -- just a few desktop apps.

I tried 6 or 8 other KDE-based Linux distros on VirtualBox 7, and they seemed to suffer from the same issues. Finally, I tried Debian 11 Bullseye with KDE, and it seems to be a world of difference. Very snappy. It runs better in a VM than Kubuntu does as the host OS!

I can't see anything in Debian that's missing compared to Kubuntu. It required just a few extra tweaks.

My questions: Has anyone else had this experience? Am I missing anything if I switch from Kubuntu to Debian + KDE?

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-67-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0
    Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.24.7 Distro: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC
    v: 0975100000405F10000620180 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 227F v: 77.26 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: Insyde v: F.12 date: 08/18/2014
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-4210U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Haswell rev: 1 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2397 high: 2401 min/max: 800/2700 cores: 1: 2397
    2: 2396 3: 2395 4: 2401 bogomips: 19155
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx

Thanks!

MWB
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Will G.
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  • Glad you found something that works for you and your hardware. You're probably not missing anything. Many Ubuntu volunteers and Canonical engineers are Debian volunteers and developers, and Ubuntu is proud of it's ongoing close relationship with Debian. If you happen to discover how Debian 11 works better with your hardware than, say, Ubuntu 22.04, please answer your own question here. – user535733 Mar 13 '23 at 23:50
  • I see your question as off-topic as you appear to be seeking (off-topic) opinions as I read it. Ubuntu includes snap packages by default with some apps (eg. firefox) packaged as snap meaning they're a little slower on initial load/run but equal from then on with a benefit of increased security/privacy. You can use the same in Debian too (its just not default), but I find Debian bookworm (my default is testing or 12) ~equal to my current Ubuntu lunar with differences largely minor differences in default configs. I'm on my primary box which is Ubuntu, but my backup runs Debian – guiverc Mar 14 '23 at 01:23
  • Ubuntu does have (in my opinion) easier choices as for kernel stack (if using LTS anyway which is closest to Debian), better support out of the box for hardware (when contrasted to Debian; of the ~25 boxes I use in QA this is of benefit to ~5) so yes there are differences that some will notice, but again it'll depend on a number of factors including your hardware, your intended usage, how often you want to release-upgrade (Ubuntu offers more alternatives with non-LTS choices to get newer software), how long you'll use it + security (Ubuntu has PRO for added security, ESM etc)..... – guiverc Mar 14 '23 at 01:26
  • Debian questions are off-topic on Ubuntu sites (so consider where you'll get help, as you need to on other sites), and of course the differences between packages (I mentioned Ubuntu offers more options), ie. I see kde-full | 5:111 | stable | amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x currently for Debian, yet kde-full | 5:118ubuntu1 | jammy/universe | amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x for jammy (22.04), ie. older software in Debian. The LXQt found in Debian 11 is that used in Lubuntu 21.04 for example; Loads of diffs if you look – guiverc Mar 14 '23 at 01:38
  • In my opinion, this question should not have been closed. It's essentially: "Why is Ubuntu much slower? What does Ubuntu offer in exchange for the slow-down?" Clearly about Ubuntu, even if it uses Debian as a reference point. – MWB Mar 14 '23 at 19:56
  • Kubuntu is quite resource hungry Try Ubuntu MATE or Lubuntu, and remove snaps/flatpaks. – Archisman Panigrahi Mar 14 '23 at 22:58

1 Answers1

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The major difference between Debian and Ubuntu is Snaps. Snaps package apps individually with all their dependencies and store them compressed. When you start a snap, those packages get uncompressed and mounted in RAM.

If, say, your system is using one version of Gtk, different Snaps could come with their own versions and they will all be taking up RAM space individually.

If you have high-end hardware, that may not be a big concern. But if you do not, the extra resources needed for Snaps might not be the resources that you can spare.

If you decide to remove Snaps from your Ubuntu system, this question discusses how.

MWB
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