[ubuntu-uk] Is Ubuntu getting too bloated?

[Daniel M. Drummond]

On Sat, 2010-05-29 at 10:51 +0100, Paul Roach wrote:
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> First of all, let me say this isn't a troll, but a genuine question
> with regard to the direction of the project as someone who's been
> on-and off using Ubuntu since Dapper...
> 
> I've used a fair few distros over the years and have enjoyed some more
> than others.  I'm a big fan of Arch, for example, but just don't have
> the time to devote to setting it up on different machines
> regularly...I also love the Crunchbang project, which is truly awesome
> for an astoundingly fast distro - my wife gets excellent performance
> on it on her EEPC701 :) If you've not used it, check it out!
> 
> I also have quite a few servers running and these are split between
> CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu.
> 
> The other day, I decided to rebuild one of my desktop machines, and
> thought i'd see what was happening with Debian now (with a Desktop
> environment), and was truly amazed - the boot times and responsiveness
> were astounding compared to Lucid on the same hardware...it feels like
> a new machine.  I've got to wonder whether all the social networking
> intergration, etc are the right direction for the project if it
> damages performance....should these things be optional and not
> included in a virgin install from the start?
> 
> I do a lot of network analysis, and on my Lucid laptop I have to apply
> a ton of filters in TCPDump or wireshark to avoid obfuscating results
> - -it's phenominal how much network overhead is added as a result of
> these extra features....even when they appear to not be running.
> Seriously, try booting your machine and firing up wireshark and just
> watch the erroneous traffic flying around!
> 
> How do other people feel about the growth of Ubuntu in terms of
> network overhead and hardware use?
> 
> My other question is with regard to the forums.....as more users start
> using Ubuntu, the forums see at lot more traffic, but every time i go
> onto Ubuntu Forums, I have a massive facepalm at some of the advice
> being offered on there, which to a new user looks like good advice...
> and it's undoubtedly offered with good intentions.  Looking for
> answers in Ubuntu now seems to present a mountain of white noise, and
> not a lot of substance...
> 
> As I say, not trolling, but just interested in other peoples
> thoughts....
> 
> Roachy
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Tom's Hardware had an interesting articles comparing Lucid with Hardy
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ubuntu-10.04-lucid-lynx,2634.html
and this showed a general trend of an increase in performance.

I would be very surprised if Debian boot times were shorter than the
Ubuntu boot times, given the work that has been put into this area. In
the most recent Ubuntus I have had a 10 second extra wait due to ACPI
DSDT problems, but an older kernel won't have this.  In that respect
sometimes an older distro feels quicker.

You could always start with a plain server install, and then add just
the desktop features you want (It'll be a bit simpler than an Arch
install).  For me though the extra features speed up my efficiency in
using the system, so any slowdown due to bloat is negated by this.

How did the server's compare incidentally?

Dan