Youtube is rendered by Flash. Entirely. As in, Ubuntu did not write the software, has no control over it, and can't make it run any faster. Just like Apple a

Youtube is rendered by Flash. Entirely. As in, Ubuntu did not write the software, has no control over it, and can't make it run any faster. Just like Apple and Microsoft can't. There are also slimmed down Ubuntu versions for older hardware, e.g. Xubuntu and Lubuntu. Those run much faster on aging systems, allowing Ubuntu to support people with newer hardware. Not to mention that nobody's forcing you to update if you don't want to. For example, 8.04 is still officially supported through April 2011 for desktops and 2013 for servers. Please feel free to continue using that if it works better for you.