Linux runs like shit?

[Seriel]

Heyo!

Another laptop, another Linux related question.
This laptop is much better than the last. For example, writing this topic doesn't lag one bit. Hoorah! But i'm starting to get sick of windows, and i've been told many many times "Use linux" "Linux master race" and well, okay. That seems plausible, I can see the advanatages Linux has over Windows, so I gave it a shot.

And well.
As you can probably guess from the title, it runs like shit. It's a buggy slow pile of trash that has nothing on Windows.
But!
I have seen Linux being used before, and it was nothing like this. No, i'm concerned it's my laptop's fault. Windows is super smooth and runs fine, however Linux just cracks for some reason. It just lags like hell and I can't do anything and always quit back to Windows.

I first tried Linux Mint because I heard good things about it, but then shit went down and it sucked, so I decided to instead try "Ubunu MATE" simply because I picked a random linux and went with it. But then that had all the same issues so i'm starting to think it's something else.

So does anyone have any ideas why Linux runs like trash on this laptop when Windows is perrrfectly fine?

 

[Nyap]

laptop spex

 

[Seriel]

laptop spex

Before you call it shit, you should see what I had in the last topic. THAT was shit.

 

[Nyap]

btw what "went down" when you installed linux mint

 

[Seriel]

btw what "went down" when you installed linux mint

It ran like trash.
Everything was jerky and super slow, it would take forever to do anything, and just generally felt like I was running a single core 1ghz processor, when I am not.
Also on Ubuntu MATE it kept coming up with errors every two seconds lol.

 

[The Catboy]

I feel like something has to be wrong on your end because Linux shouldn't have a problem with those specs, in fact it should work just fine out of the box on those kinds of specs.
When running Mint, look for additional drivers to see if you are missing any drivers that could be causing you any hassle. Possibly your video card drivers are missing, which often causes lag and crashes.

 

[Seriel]

I feel like something has to be wrong on your end because Linux shouldn't have a problem with those specs, in fact it should work just fine out of the box on those kinds of specs.

That's exactly what made me make this topic instead of going "linux sucks" and rage-quiting.

When running Mint, look for additional drivers to see if you are missing any drivers that could be causing you any hassle. Possibly your video card drivers are missing, which often causes lag and crashes.

I don't actually have Mint installed right now, but i'll note to do that when I make the plunge again.

Also, which is even better anyway, Mint or Ubuntu MATE? Or uh, anything else? Which would you recommend to a Linux noob with these specs?

 

[The Catboy]

That's exactly what made me make this topic instead of going "linux sucks" and rage-quiting.


I don't actually have Mint installed right now, but i'll note to do that when I make the plunge again.

Also, which is even better anyway, Mint or Ubuntu MATE? Or uh, anything else? Which would you recommend to a Linux noob with these specs?

Mint > Ubuntu MATE. Mint just does MATE better and Cinnamon kicks MATE's ass.
I know Intel normally plays nice with Linux. So this could be linked to a driver issue with your video card because I've had problems like that in the past and installing the right drivers fixed it.

 

[Nyap]

depends on which de you prefer
I personally like linux mint xfce more than ubuntu mate

 

[Seriel]

Mint > Ubuntu MATE. Mint just does MATE better and Cinnamon kicks MATE's ass.
I know Intel normally plays nice with Linux. So this could be linked to a driver issue with your video card because I've had problems like that in the past and installing the right drivers fixed it.

Alright.
I'm gonna stick Mint on a seperate partition and give it another shot.
Cinnamon right?

Also, uh, once i'm in, how do I update the drivers?

 

[Nyap]

driver manager in settings (at least that's how it works on xfce, not sure about cinnamon)

 

[SlappyTheDummy]

I successfully installed Debian linux and Ubuntu in another computer with similar specs (but with intel video card ) and it runs smoothly.
Usually I use the netinstaller of debian that leaves out the trash ubuntu install by default ( Unity for example ). If you experienced lag usually it means you have an underpowered videocard to run smoothly the default desktop, I suggest you to try ubuntu MATE or debian 8 with MATE because MATE is a DE that consume a low amount of RAM and CPU without the need of a videocard with 3D accelleration to run.

 

[TVL]

What's your reason for switching? In your case I would just stick with Windows. Some hardware seems to still have shitdrivers under Linux. I gave up on it in 2009, to never return.

 

[a9lh-1user]

If you are willing to run linx on your laptop learn how it works!
The best way would be you do it with Arch: https://www.archlinux.org/
Read all about it an give the wiki a try: https://wiki.archlinux.org/
The good thing about it is you will know what you've done and you have a configuration of your own!
The distros are nice to learn the linux way ....... but if you want control ...... do it by yourself!

It's a hard an not the easyest way but IMAO it worth it

P.S. all those ready to go "Windows" manager are coming with many changes for the main linux system. (so it would be very confusing where to find what!) give I3 a change : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/i3
or one of the other "pure" window manager : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/window_manager

 

[Seriel]

o boi

@Crystal the Glaceon you are the best.
I literally just clicked "Drivers" on the Mint welcome screen and it uhh.. installed a driver which fixed everything.
Well that was interesting.

--Proudly running Linux Mint as of today--

 

[dankzegriefer]

It ran like trash.
Everything was jerky and super slow, it would take forever to do anything, and just generally felt like I was running a single core 1ghz processor, when I am not.
Also on Ubuntu MATE it kept coming up with errors every two seconds lol.

Install a distrobution with LXDE, like lubuntu. Ubuntu MATE and Linux Mint have basically the same performance.

 

[Seriel]

Install a distrobution with LXDE, like lubuntu. Ubuntu MATE and Linux Mint have basically the same performance.

--Proudly running Linux Mint as of today--

Everything is fine now and i'm happy

 

[dankzegriefer]

Everything is fine now and i'm happy

oh coolio. I run Arch myself on this almost ten-year-old thinkpad

 

[The Catboy]

o boi

@Crystal the Glaceon you are the best.
I literally just clicked "Drivers" on the Mint welcome screen and it uhh.. installed a driver which fixed everything.
Well that was interesting.

--Proudly running Linux Mint as of today--

Wooo~ I knew it sounded like driver issues. My boyfriend's old laptop used to have issues like that, but once I got the drivers installed, everything was fixed.

 

[Steve Antony Williams]

I had issues with Mint myself until I changed the video drivers to flgx updates (or something like that, I can't recall exactly), works well now. Linux Mint KDE 17.