Because I am a web developer and I don't play games, linux would be ok for me.
I installed Ubuntu 14.10 (dual boot - Windows 8.1 ) and I noticed that it's slower than Windows. Every application(chrome, firefox, sublime text, skype, ...) is opening instant on Windows, but on Linux it takes 1-2 seconds.
My desktop is:
- i5 4590 (3.3 GHz)
- 16 GB RAM
- SSD from Intel
This is going to sound strange, but is there a reason why you chose 14.10 over 14.04 LTS?
Because that was the last version, and I don't think that is the problem. If you think that the version is the problem, I can install 14.04. But I am not so sure that version is the problem.
14.10 is the experimental version 14.04 is the lts or long term support version. it,s more stable.
I've recently installed 14.10 gnome and haven't noticed any unusual slowness. Take a look at the system monitor when you notice the slowness and see if anything seems out of the ordinary.
14.04 LTS is definitely going to be more stable and well supported, although it doesn't always mean faster.
Current (right now is 15.04) is going to have the latest and greatest, so it may have better performance, it may have worse, it may have a few broken things.
There's also other weirdness that happens. Right now, using Gnome3 on my SSD results in instant opening and closing and really just doing anything. Install Xubuntu and it's so stuttery that it's unusable. Install it on my slower PC and it works like a charm, nice and snappy and everything! Real weird stuff.
Are you running the 32 bit or 64 bit version?
Have you check the CPU performance (i.e. HTOP in terminal/console - what does it show? High CPU usage or low)
What are using for graphics (on chip or dedicated)?
I am running 64 bit version, I have 16GB RAM.
I didn't see anything unusually in system monitor, CPU 1%, RAM 5-7%.
I have on chip graphics : Intel HD Graphics 4600
If you ever get the chance, run gentoo or gentoo derivatives like Sabayon. When you compile software for your machine, it starts to get ridiculous how fast it is. I have been running Sabayon in a virtualbox to test it out, no joke the thing boots in 2 secs... Can't image what it will be like installed bare metal. It does come at a cost, compiling all your software takes time.
Thats strange, I run the same version of ubuntu on my old i7 based Toshiba laptop (just without the duel boot and the ssd) and have had 1 second load times for things like chromium and rhythmbox for ages. Have you tried preloading commonly used apps to ram?
When gnome starts there is some indexing that happens. If I remember correctly look for a process with the name tracker or with "tracker" in the name using a lot of IO. Some thing like that. If your gnome is always slow not just for some minutes after startup it's probably something else then.
14.10 is more unstable than LTS, and LTS is rather unstable to be honest, also just run 14.04 then run kernel upgrade, only issue with this method and any distro/kernel is you need to re-install drivers unless they are Open source.
What GPU are you using? I am wondering if GNOME is taking a lot of GPU performance due to its fancy animations.
Gnome is always slow, not just after startup.
@NoGo Yes, I have the following process: tracker-extract, tracker-miner-fs, tracker-store
From all messages, I understood that I should install ubuntu 14.04. What GUI ? Unity ? Gnome ?
It really doesn't matter much, just try a few! :)
(Unity is most like Gnome)
Avoid Unity, as it has some non-malicious spyware in it, unless you like catered adds. Gnome 3 is solid and a really fluid desktop environment. If you want something that feels a little bit more like Windows you can always get Cinnamon (Gnome 2 Basically).
I hope people know that it's one command away from removal right? All it does is amazon searches from the dash which you don't even need to know the command line to disable.
Or go to https://fixubuntu.com/ and get the run-once-fixed-forever script.
On my system I have the same processes with the exception that I don't have tracker-extract running but I remember noticing it when I first tried gnome. If you have a lot of media files for example it could be taking much longer for you.
I don't know the commands well enough to give an example of how to find a process with high IO off the top of my head, I normally google each time I need to. I am lazy and use "glances" a nify tool to get a quick over view. press I to sort by IO usage, etc. It might help you see whats going on better.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/293426/system-monitoring-tools-for-ubuntu
I have installed Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon and now It's fast like windows.
Experimental.. is a little of an overstatement..
The software is stable and meant for daily use.. Experimental is usually Beta or Alpha (SUPER EXP) ..
14.04 is LTS which means it will not CHANGE... you use it if you need a no change type environment but 14.10 adds kernel improvements and makes life better for us everyday users gamers and multimedia folk
I have also tried ubuntu 14.10 with unity(downloaded from ubuntu.com) and it works smoothly.
I think the problem is with Gnome interface on intel hd graphics.