I enjoy using many different desktop environments and operating systems. On a day-to-day basis, I use Finder, Explorer, GNOME, and KDE. They all have their good sides, but obviously, they have their fair share of bad sides as well. The next couple of columns will be about the latter. This week, I take a look at whatever bothers me about Ubuntu's GNOME/Linux combination (Dapper, obviously).
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Member since:2006-02-01
http://www.davidcourtney.org/Files/Win-vs-Lin-video.asf
(Sorry that I only have an asf file. Video encoding isn't my thing.)
I'm not saying that GTK's redraw speed couldn't be better -- it definitely could -- but that video is pretty unfair.
In the Windows case, the window is on top of a blank desktop with a few icons on it -- it doesn't even have to redraw any wallpaper. On the other hand, in the Linux case you've got a Nautilus window on top of Firefox. For whatever reason, Firefox's drawing speed under Linux is extremely poor (open a page with some Flash images -- the Flash parts of the page are always displayed first). This is certainly something that needs fixing, but it's not the responsibility of the Gnome project, or even GTK, but instead the Mozilla/Gecko people.
A fairer comparison would be to move/resize a Nautilus window on top of a plain Gnome desktop, without wallpaper, exactly as you had in Windows.
Member since:2005-07-06
I'm not saying that GTK's redraw speed couldn't be better -- it definitely could -- but that video is pretty unfair.
Eh ... maybe. I see your point ... the video certainly wasn't intended to be biased though. The thing is, even if you bring MS Explorer (the file manager equivalent of Nautilus) over top of IE and resize and move the window, there is no redrawing.
Member since:2005-07-06
Using firefox on a complex webpage is probably the worst test you could ever come up with. Also the GTK+ theme that you have chosen is probably THE slowest theme there is.
Why don't you load a large text document in notepad with cleartype on, then you'll it flashing like crazy.
I am sure windows has some nice optomizations anyway to stop windows trailing. With linux and composite you never get one trail.
The latency/speed of GTK+/X should be improved but in that video was totally biased.
Edited 2006-06-04 22:28
Member since:2005-09-14
I have Zeta installed on a spare machine ... one thing I really like about Zeta is how fast everything is. Navigating the file system, resizing windows, etc... It's all very responsive. The only slow thing about Zeta is when you draw your mouse cursor accross the desktop background as if you wanted to highlight multiple icons. For some reason, that single thing is *extremely* slow. I suspect it has to do with the fact that Zeta draws some kind of tranlucent window over the icons. They should get rid of the "special effect" and just use an ordinary line border.
That's an option in Preferences, Tracker.
Member since:
2005-07-06
I definitely agree with the GTK redraw problem. For me personally, that has been my number one complaint for the last 2 or 3 years about using Linux on the Desktop.
Here is an old video I made to demonstrate the problem. I don't think the problem is really any better than it use to be, but it's not as much of a problem for me these days because I don't use Gnome at all any more. I just use Openbox and rox-filer. I still notice sluggish redrawing, but it's not nearly as bad with general GTK apps as it is with Gnome+GTK apps.
http://www.davidcourtney.org/Files/Win-vs-Lin-video.asf
(Sorry that I only have an asf file. Video encoding isn't my thing.)
Here is another interesting video. I didn't make it ... I don't know who did. But this is the kind of ultra fast response time I dream about.
http://www.davidcourtney.org/Files/AmigaOS4-Fast.avi
I have Zeta installed on a spare machine ... one thing I really like about Zeta is how fast everything is. Navigating the file system, resizing windows, etc... It's all very responsive. The only slow thing about Zeta is when you draw your mouse cursor accross the desktop background as if you wanted to highlight multiple icons. For some reason, that single thing is *extremely* slow. I suspect it has to do with the fact that Zeta draws some kind of tranlucent window over the icons. They should get rid of the "special effect" and just use an ordinary line border.