Fastest Ubuntu version for development [closed]

Question

I'm using Ubuntu for development. Today I installed the new 11.04. Boot time is almost twice/three times as fast. Also I do not really need all the fancy graphics as I want to focus on developing web apps and desktop/console apps.

I now read that with every release Ubuntu tends to slow down a bit and many people claim it's bloated. In your experience, which version of Ubuntu is the fastest?

Thanks, Frank

(PS: If you have an idea for a better OS than Ubuntu pls let me know. One of Ubuntu's strong points to me is the integration of Synaptic though, which sets everything up for me so I don't have to waste time on configuration.)

Answer 1

Yes you are correct, Ubuntu is quite bloated. If you plan to use it for development I recommend Fedora; I am sure many others will agree with me on this.

You may have to take some additional time to setup everything the way you want it, but you will be happier in the long run.

http://fedoraproject.org/

Answer 2

I don't think you have to listen to someone telling something related to IT is "slow" or "fast". It's a dramatic simplification that never helps you understand what are your needs and the relative solutions to choose. How many times we heard "Java is slow", and this is plain false for many reasons.

I can bet Ubuntu 11.04 "standard" will run fine in your machine, also for development. You wouldn't notice any sensible performance boost installing other versions (maybe Xubuntu would be like 6-7% faster), neither by installing other Gnome-based distros.

BTW, is your Ubuntu 11.04 installation made from scratch or by updating a previous version?

Just disable visual effects, but in that case too you won't notice more than a insignificant performance improvement.

And no, Ubuntu is not bloated at all, it's a common place. And it's strange that the boot time increased so much, you should read what happens in the boot process, maybe there's something strange going on.