Hello folks, never used Linux before. Managed to install Xubuntu this week on a old Dell 8300 Dimension PC from 2003. Completely replaced Win XP with Xubuntu. Running DSL. My problem is, websites load but very slowly, with erratic scrolling. Xubuntu is as it came in the package.

Is there tweaking somewhere that needs to be done?

Thanks!
carl7

What browser are you using? Just try another one for starters. You can get firefox, chromium, etc.

Thanks, I'm using the Firefox that came with Xubuntu 16.04 for 32bit. At this point I wouldn't even know how to install another browser. I have so much to learn about linux.

carl7

Search for Ubuntu Software Center. After you enter it, search for browsers or simply "chromium". Try out a few and see if it's a browser-related problem.

Thanks vincix, I'll try different browswers. I tried Firefox in safemode, no difference. In the Xubuntu pkg, it has Thunderbird email client and that seems to work well, no scroll or loading slowness.

carl7

i'm surprised Xubuntu 16.04 even installed on a 14 year old copmputer.

even if, the internet of 2017 does not care much for hardware that age. it (the internet) is bloated beyond any reason.

try lightweight browser, try blocking javascript and ads, it might help a little.

i hear linuxquestions (and many other sites) works on text mode browsers like links or lynx or w3m etc.

If you can, put some more ram into it, Firefox runs slowly on a 1GB machine.

Also, you might want to try a lighter distro, something like AntiX - http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for the tips, I'll play with different browsers and see about the ram too. I couldn't decide which distro to start out on there are so many, first installed Lubuntu, found the Abiword program had a flickering glitch. Next installed Xubuntu. On the slowness, I installed the FF addon Noscript and that helped a little.

So far, the Ubuntu installed ok on the 2003 machine. I have two PC's, the other a 2013 Windows 8.1 machine with 1T HDD and 8gb ram with a 28 mbps connection. Downloaded the iso files and used Netbootin to install unto USB drive. Then, installed it on the 2003 PC.

carl7

2003?
It is surprising that your browser opens the sites at all...
Try AntiX as it suggested above, or CrunchBang.
Though for such a outdated hardware it will be painfully slow to open web pages, no matter is it firefox or any other browser.

Strange....I turned on the machine an hour ago and FF is now working good, I see there's a addon that I didn't add, the addon is called Ubuntu and says "special configuration for Firefox". I did send a error report this morning, maybe it's Ubuntu's response to that.

Teufel, yes it's running well enough for me now. Hopefully it stays like that.

Thanks, carl7

no, they can't just go and install software on your computer.
ubuntu's firefoxes usually ship with some small tweaks to integrate better into the OS. maybe you just didn't notice it before.
also, it wouldn't have an impact on performance in any way whatsoever.

Thanks ondoho, I wouldn't think so either. I know when I first fired up FF, it looked like something was incomplete, missing. Just a blank home page screen and the slow loading. Later, don't know how or why, the full FF came up, search bar, Ubuntu logo and normal performance. I guess something initially didn't load or something.
Anyway, I'm glad it got fixed on it's own.

However, there are some other quirks I've come across, I'll post in a new thread.

carl7

Hi.

Old upgrades are cheep eg:&c...

I run Chrome from there website (one of few to easily get HULU working for me)then for Gmail I use FireFox's default install under stretch/sid, most of the time I use Chrome's development version and if saving battery on my laptop CLI\Links2 is cool but don't stop there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...t_web_browsers
or there...

Have fun!