RichardR Posted March 31, 2019 Posted March 31, 2019 I just purchased a 4GB Rock64. I've tried both the Ubuntu (Armbian Bionic Desktop 4.4.y) and Debian (Armbian Stretch Desktop 4.4.y) distros. I'm finding that the Debian distro is very sluggish compared to the Ubuntu distro. The desktop is sluggish in responding to mouse clicks and in Chromium, a basic web page takes about 3 seconds to display compared to about 1 second with Ubuntu. Is this the same performance difference that other people are finding with these distros on the Rock64? Is there some configuration tweak I need to make to improve Debian performance? Is there another distro that I should check out that would give me better performance?
Igor Posted April 1, 2019 Posted April 1, 2019 On 3/31/2019 at 5:18 AM, RichardR said: I've tried both the Ubuntu (Armbian Bionic Desktop 4.4.y) and Debian (Armbian Stretch Desktop 4.4.y) distros. They should have same low level support. Kernel is the same, while there are many changes in the user space level. Debian and Ubuntu use different packaging versions and relations which resulted in different version of Chromium which is maintained by another project: https://www.chromium.org/for-testers/bug-reporting-guidelines On 3/31/2019 at 5:18 AM, RichardR said: Is this the same performance difference that other people are finding with these distros on the Rock64? This is possible that will be changed with an upgrade. It is also possible that upgraded Chromium stopped working. On 3/31/2019 at 5:18 AM, RichardR said: that would give me better performance? No. Remember to check this:
KhanhDTP Posted May 31, 2019 Posted May 31, 2019 I have used Armbian Debian Stretch Desktop 4.19.y for 3 days. And I see that LXDE / vivaldi give better user desktop experiences than Armbian's default Xfce / Chrominum.
Igor Posted May 31, 2019 Posted May 31, 2019 2 hours ago, KhanhDTP said: And I see that LXDE / vivaldi give better user desktop experiences than Armbian's default Xfce / Chrominum. Chromium is here for compatibility/user demand reasons and we are aware its not the fastest solution - feel free to install Vivaldi, Firefox, Epiphany or whatever you find useful for you on XFce. Than compare to Lxde with the same browser. Xfce itself is the same weight as LXDE, just looks a bit more modern / nice and we have it fine tuned a bit.
KhanhDTP Posted May 31, 2019 Posted May 31, 2019 1 hour ago, Igor said: Chromium is here for compatibility/user demand reasons and we are aware its not the fastest solution - feel free to install Vivaldi, Firefox, Epiphany or whatever you find useful for you on XFce. Than compare to Lxde with the same browser. Xfce itself is the same weight as LXDE, just looks a bit more modern / nice and we have it fine tuned a bit. Yes, I still using Chromium, Vivaldi, and Firefox. About Xfce and LXDE, I don't know why I feel like LXDE is ~1.5 faster/smoother than Xfce. It just my experience, anyway!
Igor Posted May 31, 2019 Posted May 31, 2019 7 minutes ago, KhanhDTP said: It just my experience, anyway! Understand your point. There is a long standing myth saying LXDE is most lightweight DM out there. It could be, but until someone doesn't provide scientifically made comparison this is just a myth or opinion. If and what is 50% ??? faster, where and how does this looks like. IMO its really hard to judge. And is it important at all? Armbian primary focus is hardware support, server cases and our desktop is here in some minimal fashion. We could go for LXDE but why? Perhaps 10 years ago this would make some diff, but not with boards that are around now. They have much more horse power and potential difference is even less noticeable. At the end, average Joe remembers his first impression. Snappiness is surely one of them, but DE diff is to small to bother. Does XFCE looks nicer? Undoubtedly. Some snappiness is worth to sacrifice for the look but not as much as is needed for Gnome ... which (v3.28) I normally use on my desktop and some boards are powerful enough to cope with it.
ReneeSimon Posted July 23, 2019 Posted July 23, 2019 At first place, Ubuntu and Debian seem largely similar. Both use the same package management system and you’ll often find software packaged for both. Below the surface, however, there are some key differences to be aware of. https://docsbay.net/debian-vs-ubuntu-best-linux-distro-for-laptops-desktops-and-servers
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