Best Way to Improve Ubuntu MATE Performance on Older Hardware?

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Hey everyone,

I am running Ubuntu MATE on an older laptop (Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM) and it's been great but I feel like I could squeeze a little more performance out of it. I am wondering if anyone has tips for optimizing Ubuntu MATE for older hardware: ?? I love how lightweight MATE is but I think there's room to streamline things further.

I have already tried this:

  • Disabling startup applications I don’t need.
  • Switching to a lighter theme and reducing visual effects.
  • Using the Marco window manager instead of Compiz.
  • Installing preload to speed up application launch.

I have noticed some improvement but I am sure there are other tweaks I could try. Maybe something with the kernel, swappiness settings or even better alternatives for some default apps: ?? I have also read this thread https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/computer-too-slow-after-installing-mate-for-48-hours-cissp/ but couldn't find any solution.

Any advice from this community would be really appreciated !!

Thanks in advance for the help !!

With Regards,
David Miller

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Hello,

My short answer is that it looks like there is not much to advise already. And you are correct in that lowering swappiness to 5-10 increases general responsibility of a desktop installation. Next to it, I would not use preloading for it takes extra RAM and can lead to swapping earlier than expected. Well, it makes a bit of sense to turn off system sounds as well.

All in all, recipes for a faster computing presume having fast HDD, fast videocard and a plenty of RAM rather than a mighty CPU. Specific workloads require their specific resources to run faster. Say, browsing with a lot of open tabs requires a lot of RAM, etc.

Being an average user without specific needs I managed to virtually rejuvenate my laptop by adding RAM and replacing older HDD with SSD.

Good luck!

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Hi, @daviddmiller and welcome to the Ubuntu MATE Community!