Hello all, I'm a complete beginner with this sort of thing and hoping someone who knows what they're talking about can help me please....

Today I installed Zorin 7 on my netbook and it is running extremely slowly. By which I mean whenever I open a file/folder, or just click on anything, it takes a good 10-15 seconds before anything will happen. And when it does, it'll do it in slow motion. I've googled and found a few threads of similar experiences, but none of which have had a satisfactory, or clear resolution.

Can anyone please help? Here's all the info I think you'll need for my Asus Eeepc netbook...

Memory: 991.0Mib
Processor: Intel Atom CPU N2600 @ 1.6GHz x 4
Graphics: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.2, 128bits)
OS Type: 32-BIT
Disk: 313.8GB

The netbook originally had Windows 7 Starter on it and I installed Zorin via SD card. (I used Yumi to install it on the SD card when it still had Windows on).

I did see something somewhere about booting up in recovery mode and selecting DPKG and FSCK, but I have to be honest, I don't fully understand what these do and didn't seem to make any difference anyway.

If anyone can point me in the right direction, i'd be very grateful

If me. I don't run Zorin. I'd open a terminal and use

or

and see what is bleeding my netbook to death. There is a cpu and ram meter in those readouts.

Sorry? You've completely lost me there lol

Here's what I'm thinking, and I welcome any and all input if I'm going down the wrong route here...

It's possible it's not using enough RAM and I have to somehow tell it/allocate it more RAM, but would only be able to do this by completely reinstalling Zorin? If so, I've no idea how - Bit of a stab in the dark, but I think I read something along these lines on another forum on my phone earlier and now cannot find the same thread lol

Or what I'm hoping is that it's just the graphics drivers needing udpating?

Failing that, I could install Zorin 7 Lite instead as it doesn't have as high system requirements to see if it works any better?...But then again my netbook surely should meet the minimum spec for Zorin anyway?

Or my final option is to consider a new operating system alltogether.

Like I said, I'm a complete beginner at this stuff and basically just want something which runs alot quicker, looks more pleasing than windows 7 starter and something I can use as a learning tool.

How did Windows 7 run on this machine?

It wasn't as responsive as I'd liked. Sometimes infuriatingly slow when waiting for something to open up, but mostly just ran "alright". It was regularly scanned for nasties in the background and never had anything show up.

Honestly, I would have installed the Lite version. It will run much better on 1gb of RAM.

To clarify, the computer was "infuriatingly slow when waiting for something to open up" in Windows, and is "running extremely slowly" in Linux? This suggests to me the slowness is a property of the hardware, and not specific to the operating system. What is the model number? Your specs suggest it is an Asus EEE of 2007-08 vintage. These were not high-performance machines; they were considered low-spec 5 years ago and have not aged well. The primary focus was portability, not speed.

I retired my EEE a while back; if I still had to use it today, I would probably choose a lightweight distribution such as AntiX or CrunchBang. It would not be high-performance but might give me some basic functionality. Good luck!

Totally lost? Ok.

http://myzorinos6manual.blogspot.com...2_archive.html

Maybe the above may help you find your way. I know it is for Zorin 6 but Zorin manuals are scarce from
what I can see. All I see is how "like windows 7" and reviews.

Maybe the developer will weigh in on this thread or another ZorinOS user

Me mention top in terminal is like watching what is taking up most cpu and ram while running so as to narrow down the problem. Just a generic linux troubleshooting device I use in any Linux install.

Good luck with it. Me, I run Window Managers instead of Desktop Enviorments on my Atom Netbooks Mostly.
I do how ever run a SolydX install on one of my Atom, 2gig ram netbooks. Just because I run AntiX on the other made by the same company with 2gig of ram but a 64gig SSD on that one. It is screaming fast.
The SolydX is just a tad slower being a platter IDE zif drive and XFCE on it vs Icewm and Fluxbox on the AntiX one. I know. All greek to you. Must be the egg nog talking.

Edit: Good eggnogg. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...8/#post5069621

I installed the lite version of Zorin on a netbook with almost the exact same specs and it ran great. The full featured version is just too much for the Intel Atom and 1gb of RAM to run smoothly.

Wrong Atom, the N2600 is a late 2011/early 2012 release-

http://ark.intel.com/products/58916

But yes, atoms arent meant to be 'high performance'. The N2XXX has one of the PowerVR 'GPUs' that have awful linux support as well. Its never going to be quick with a 'bloated'/heavy OS like zorin 7, or anything running a heavy desktop (like gnome 3 or KDE4). Though the 'lite' version might work, why bother? But I'm no fan of ubuntu. Rebranded ubuntu 13.04 with 9 months support (yes, you'll have to risk upgrading or reinstall in a very short amount of time) and a paid for, opps, 'donate to support our project and get Zorin OS 7 Ultimate' option that always annoys me doesnt seem like a great distro to me.....

I'd be trying something like snowpine suggested, like AntiX or CrunchBang.

Thanks for all the replies so far.

This is what I was hoping to hear, thanks I'll give this a try tomorrow and report back.

If this fails, I'll look into what cascade9/snowpine has suggested with AntiX & CrunchBang.

Well I'm happy to report that after installing Zorin 7 lite, it is now lightning fast!

Next I just have to get my head around installing new themes etc - personalising it to my own taste.