5 ms·

"Ode To Ubuntu's Unity Dash". The Poem.

24 points by MisterLunduke 13y ago

Piskvorrr 13y ago
For me, the answer was as simple as "Ctrl+Alt+T; sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop"
voyou 13y ago
Why is the Unity dash so slow, and why does Canonical not seem to have any interest in speeding it up? Is it faster on their testing machines? Is it significantly faster on new hardware, if you're using an SSD, or if you have more than 4GB of RAM, or something? I quite like Unity generally, but the ridiculous slowness of the dash is a constant irritant.
- vomitcuddle 13y ago
  it's a compiz plugin written in python. python is slow.
  - sp332 13y ago
    Does it start a new interpreter every time you open it or something?
  - voyou 13y ago
    The dash itself is written in C++. It gets some of its data from python plugins, but a) not when it's searching for local files or applications, for which it uses services compiled to native code and b) there's no reason python should be slow for stuff that isn't hugely computation intensive like, say, searching a list of filenames. Whatever Unity's problem is, the choice of implementation language is not it.
- bowlofpetunias 13y ago
  I suspect Canonical is playing the long game. They know that the current generation of Linux desktop users may switch desktops or distros, but will just as easily switch back if Ubuntu trumps those. For the broader audience, the Linux desktop is still not up to par with Windows or OSX, and that is Canonical's goal. So basically, you're all just expendable guinea pigs, and all of your complaining is actually providing Canonical with cheap feedback. Given that it's open source and we're not paying fuck all for it, I can't really say Canonical is doing it wrong.
- scottharveyco 13y ago
  I am running 12.04 on a machine with a SSD and 16GB of RAM and it works perfectly. I was not even aware people were having this problem until I read this post.
- lemieux 13y ago
  I have no problem on my personal laptop (i7, 8GB RAM, SSD), but on my work laptop (i5,6GB, HDD) it is horrible. I can wait up to 10 seconds before it appears... I just disabled the Super key binding on that computer.
  - qznc 13y ago
    HDD vs SSD would be my guess. I suspect it does a lot of disk accesses like loading icons, loading .desktop files, opening index, ... Is it faster, when you open it the second time?
    - keithpeter 13y ago
      On a very slow netbook, I noticed that Unity 12.04 (LTS version) opens quicker on the second and subsequent invocation than on the first. However, there is still a significant delay. I suspect the searches and time taken to build the various lenses is the reason. Gnome Shell appears to be a lot snappier because the search does not happen on that first screen. Does anyone remember Mac OS Spotlight? Took ages when first introduced (10.3?) then got loads faster on the same hardware. I'm hoping the same will happen with Unity.
- CSDude 13y ago
  I have a good machine with quad core processor, plenty of ram, and a very good GPU GTX675m, but it still lags like it is the first alpha version of Windows Vista.
- fps 13y ago
  I mainly use gnome-shell, but I fired up Unity on my Ubuntu 13.10 running Thinkpad T400 (~4 year old machine, core 2 duo) with 8 GB of RAM and a Samsung 840 pro SSD. the unity dash comes up instantaneously for me; certainly less than 1/2 a second. I'm guessing the SSD makes a big difference, as it does with all other computer performance issues. A 128GB MLC SSD costs less than $100 these days, and using one as your OS drive is by far the most incredible performance improvement you can make on a desktop machine.
jkldotio 13y ago
I was using Gnome-Do and later Synapse before Unity arrived and it is much slower which is one of the top UI felonies for new software.
- DanTheManPR 13y ago
  Ditto for Launchy, which is cross-platform and replicates every feature of Dash. There are a lot of these search-while-you-type launchers out there, and none of them are as slow as Canonical's implementation.
sp332 13y ago
It doesn't bother me that much because it never misses what I type. I can hit the Super key, then 't', then enter, and I know that it will eventually launch a terminal.
- lemieux 13y ago
  CTRL+ALT+T might be faster in your case.
  - sp332 13y ago
    True, but you get the idea... I don't have to wait for it to "launch" before I start typing, so I don't feel like it's breaking my train of thought. This is mostly true with typing an address in Firefox too, because the history pane seems to ignore me at first which is much more annoying.
- smithzvk 13y ago
  Actually, you can't really trust that behavior if you ever install new software, or even change the way you use the computer by say starting to use some other program that starts with a "t" very often. The Dash optimizes for programs that you run frequently and some other program might win out if you run it more often than "terminal". The Dash is based on giving feedback to the user; that's why it needs to be fast.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
kuchaguangjie 13y ago
unity should go to hell, gnome-classic is so much better that it. I believe the high level of ubuntu is stupid to start the unity project, after years it's still a piece of shit.
pcx66 13y ago
Dash, sometimes, is horribly slow. Rest of Unity has gotten usable, but Dash is a pain even now. Canonical should really focus on it's performance since it's the most important part of Unity experience.
zecg 13y ago
I have a feeling it might be the lenses that connect to servers. I removed all unity-lens-* packages but unity-lens-applications and it's quite snappy.
nisa 13y ago
It's a shame that the dash is so slow - but there are some solutions: apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager and then apply http://askubuntu.com/a/68552/128873 http://askubuntu.com/a/68552/128873 You should also disable window animations and other funky stuff: http://www.techdrivein.com/2013/03/4-simple-tweaks-to-improve-unity-performance-ubuntu.html http://www.techdrivein.com/2013/03/4-simple-tweaks-to-improv... It sucks that I have to write this here and that countless others wasted their time researching this.
- csmuk 13y ago
  Seriously people need to stop working around crap and just vote with their feet. I just switched to Fedora 19 on the desktop and it's far better. It's lightning fast and everything just works out of the box; wifi, hibernate, SMB/CIFS networking, RDP. Miracle. Was zero config for me and it's polished. It's got to the point, that I'll probably switch all my stuff to CentOS 7 when it comes out (this will be based on RHEL7 which is based on Fedora 19). I just need stuff that works these days.
  - smithzvk 13y ago
    Two things here: 1) The cost of work-arounds is incredibly cheaper than surveying the distro space to find one that works for you. 2) It is likely the case that the benefits of using Ubuntu outweigh the cost of the work-arounds (at least this is true for me and probably many others).
    - csmuk 13y ago
      Sometimes 1) doesn't scale well. The amount of work just to get Ubuntu into a usable shape is increasing per release. I can't tell you the number of hours I've pissed out of the window on it over the last few years. It's the equivalent hack status of Windows now which removes every competitive advantage I have by using it to start with. 2) There are no explicit benefits to using Ubuntu other than you probably already have it. The benefits are disppearing faster as to be honest it's not really a fairly compatible Linux distribution. There are Ubuntu-isms creeping into other things and this is seriously bad news. Canonical just want their slice like the Unix vendors in the 1990's.
miloshadzic 13y ago
Doing Crossfit would probably break the Dash even more.
CSDude 13y ago
I once tried to run Unity under VirtualBox, and It was the fastest uninstalaltion/purge I have made so far.
mdellabitta 13y ago
I use Kupfer in Xubuntu. It's sort of similar to Quicksilver on the Mac: http://engla.github.io/kupfer/ http://engla.github.io/kupfer/
guidopallemans 13y ago
If it wasn't for the HUD feature (tapping alt gives you a search bar to all the program's menu items) I would've switched to another DE already are there any other DE's that provide something like that?

24 points by MisterLunduke 13y ago

For me, the answer was as simple as "Ctrl+Alt+T; sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop"

voyou 13y ago

Why is the Unity dash so slow, and why does Canonical not seem to have any interest in speeding it up? Is it faster on their testing machines? Is it significantly faster on new hardware, if you're using an SSD, or if you have more than 4GB of RAM, or something? I quite like Unity generally, but the ridiculous slowness of the dash is a constant irritant.

vomitcuddle 13y ago
it's a compiz plugin written in python. python is slow.
- sp332 13y ago
  Does it start a new interpreter every time you open it or something?
- voyou 13y ago
  The dash itself is written in C++. It gets some of its data from python plugins, but a) not when it's searching for local files or applications, for which it uses services compiled to native code and b) there's no reason python should be slow for stuff that isn't hugely computation intensive like, say, searching a list of filenames. Whatever Unity's problem is, the choice of implementation language is not it.
bowlofpetunias 13y ago
I suspect Canonical is playing the long game. They know that the current generation of Linux desktop users may switch desktops or distros, but will just as easily switch back if Ubuntu trumps those. For the broader audience, the Linux desktop is still not up to par with Windows or OSX, and that is Canonical's goal. So basically, you're all just expendable guinea pigs, and all of your complaining is actually providing Canonical with cheap feedback. Given that it's open source and we're not paying fuck all for it, I can't really say Canonical is doing it wrong.
scottharveyco 13y ago
I am running 12.04 on a machine with a SSD and 16GB of RAM and it works perfectly. I was not even aware people were having this problem until I read this post.
lemieux 13y ago
I have no problem on my personal laptop (i7, 8GB RAM, SSD), but on my work laptop (i5,6GB, HDD) it is horrible. I can wait up to 10 seconds before it appears... I just disabled the Super key binding on that computer.
- qznc 13y ago
  HDD vs SSD would be my guess. I suspect it does a lot of disk accesses like loading icons, loading .desktop files, opening index, ... Is it faster, when you open it the second time?
  - keithpeter 13y ago
    On a very slow netbook, I noticed that Unity 12.04 (LTS version) opens quicker on the second and subsequent invocation than on the first. However, there is still a significant delay. I suspect the searches and time taken to build the various lenses is the reason. Gnome Shell appears to be a lot snappier because the search does not happen on that first screen. Does anyone remember Mac OS Spotlight? Took ages when first introduced (10.3?) then got loads faster on the same hardware. I'm hoping the same will happen with Unity.
CSDude 13y ago
I have a good machine with quad core processor, plenty of ram, and a very good GPU GTX675m, but it still lags like it is the first alpha version of Windows Vista.
fps 13y ago
I mainly use gnome-shell, but I fired up Unity on my Ubuntu 13.10 running Thinkpad T400 (~4 year old machine, core 2 duo) with 8 GB of RAM and a Samsung 840 pro SSD. the unity dash comes up instantaneously for me; certainly less than 1/2 a second. I'm guessing the SSD makes a big difference, as it does with all other computer performance issues. A 128GB MLC SSD costs less than $100 these days, and using one as your OS drive is by far the most incredible performance improvement you can make on a desktop machine.

jkldotio 13y ago

I was using Gnome-Do and later Synapse before Unity arrived and it is much slower which is one of the top UI felonies for new software.

DanTheManPR 13y ago
Ditto for Launchy, which is cross-platform and replicates every feature of Dash. There are a lot of these search-while-you-type launchers out there, and none of them are as slow as Canonical's implementation.

sp332 13y ago

It doesn't bother me that much because it never misses what I type. I can hit the Super key, then 't', then enter, and I know that it will eventually launch a terminal.

lemieux 13y ago
CTRL+ALT+T might be faster in your case.
- sp332 13y ago
  True, but you get the idea... I don't have to wait for it to "launch" before I start typing, so I don't feel like it's breaking my train of thought. This is mostly true with typing an address in Firefox too, because the history pane seems to ignore me at first which is much more annoying.
smithzvk 13y ago
Actually, you can't really trust that behavior if you ever install new software, or even change the way you use the computer by say starting to use some other program that starts with a "t" very often. The Dash optimizes for programs that you run frequently and some other program might win out if you run it more often than "terminal". The Dash is based on giving feedback to the user; that's why it needs to be fast.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

kuchaguangjie 13y ago

unity should go to hell, gnome-classic is so much better that it. I believe the high level of ubuntu is stupid to start the unity project, after years it's still a piece of shit.

pcx66 13y ago

Dash, sometimes, is horribly slow. Rest of Unity has gotten usable, but Dash is a pain even now. Canonical should really focus on it's performance since it's the most important part of Unity experience.

zecg 13y ago

I have a feeling it might be the lenses that connect to servers. I removed all unity-lens-* packages but unity-lens-applications and it's quite snappy.

nisa 13y ago

It's a shame that the dash is so slow - but there are some solutions: apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager and then apply http://askubuntu.com/a/68552/128873 http://askubuntu.com/a/68552/128873 You should also disable window animations and other funky stuff: http://www.techdrivein.com/2013/03/4-simple-tweaks-to-improve-unity-performance-ubuntu.html http://www.techdrivein.com/2013/03/4-simple-tweaks-to-improv... It sucks that I have to write this here and that countless others wasted their time researching this.

csmuk 13y ago
Seriously people need to stop working around crap and just vote with their feet. I just switched to Fedora 19 on the desktop and it's far better. It's lightning fast and everything just works out of the box; wifi, hibernate, SMB/CIFS networking, RDP. Miracle. Was zero config for me and it's polished. It's got to the point, that I'll probably switch all my stuff to CentOS 7 when it comes out (this will be based on RHEL7 which is based on Fedora 19). I just need stuff that works these days.
- smithzvk 13y ago
  Two things here: 1) The cost of work-arounds is incredibly cheaper than surveying the distro space to find one that works for you. 2) It is likely the case that the benefits of using Ubuntu outweigh the cost of the work-arounds (at least this is true for me and probably many others).
  - csmuk 13y ago
    Sometimes 1) doesn't scale well. The amount of work just to get Ubuntu into a usable shape is increasing per release. I can't tell you the number of hours I've pissed out of the window on it over the last few years. It's the equivalent hack status of Windows now which removes every competitive advantage I have by using it to start with. 2) There are no explicit benefits to using Ubuntu other than you probably already have it. The benefits are disppearing faster as to be honest it's not really a fairly compatible Linux distribution. There are Ubuntu-isms creeping into other things and this is seriously bad news. Canonical just want their slice like the Unix vendors in the 1990's.

miloshadzic 13y ago

Doing Crossfit would probably break the Dash even more.

CSDude 13y ago

I once tried to run Unity under VirtualBox, and It was the fastest uninstalaltion/purge I have made so far.

mdellabitta 13y ago

I use Kupfer in Xubuntu. It's sort of similar to Quicksilver on the Mac: http://engla.github.io/kupfer/ http://engla.github.io/kupfer/

guidopallemans 13y ago

If it wasn't for the HUD feature (tapping alt gives you a search bar to all the program's menu items) I would've switched to another DE already are there any other DE's that provide something like that?