The graphical effects in Unity can be quite taxing on lower-end computers (i tried running 12.04 on my 3 year old netbook, not very pleasant). If, however, you

The graphical effects in Unity can be quite taxing on lower-end computers (i tried running 12.04 on my 3 year old netbook, not very pleasant). If, however, you still enjoy the stability and ease-of-use of Ubuntu, you can always install the classic gnome interface (sudo apt-get install gnome-panel) and use that instead for a significant performance boost.