Re: [libreoffice-users] Slow response time with Calc/Virtual Boxes/Dual boots

On 12/09/2016 07:07 PM, Virgil Arrington wrote:

> For me at least, LO Calc 5.1.x works fine on my Linux Mint Cinnamon live USB
> LO Calc 5.1.x works fine on a live Ubuntu 14.04 (Unity) USB
> LO Calc 5.1.x works fine on a live Puppy Linux (Tahr) USB
> LO Calc 5.2.3.3 works fine on my Windows 10 partition.
>
> I'm only experiencing the degradation in performance with LO Calc 5.1.x
> on my Ubuntu Mate 14.04 partition.
>
> I may blow off the Mate flavor of Ubuntu and install the Unity version.
> I haven't been fully satisfied with Mate anyway.

So, a funny thing happened on my way to resolve my slow Calc issues. As 
I indicated, I wasn't happy with Ubuntu Mate and wanted to try another 
solution. I have several different Linux live distros on a USB 
flashdrive, but I had never tried a virtual box as was recently 
suggested in another thread.

So, I tried it, creating a VB in my Win10 partition and using it for 
Ubuntu 14.04 Unity (I had tried 16.04 earlier this year and had many 
problems with it, so I decided to stick with what had worked for me 
before). I was surprised at how easy it was to set up VB. I accepted all 
of its recommended settings and was up and running in minutes. Well 
"running" is an exaggeration. Call it "walking." My Ubuntu in VB was 
unacceptably slow. Even typing resulted in a noticeable lag between each 
letter. When I went back to Windows, it too had slowed down perceptibly. 
My computer is a Sony Vaio laptop with quadcore CPU, 4gb of RAM and 
300+gb hard drive. I had dedicated 1gb of RAM to Ubuntu as recommended 
by VB. I quickly decided that the performance dropoff was not worth any 
benefit gained from not dual booting.

I then decided to replace my Ubuntu Mate with Ubuntu 14.04 Unity on my 
dual boot system. I had used Unity before, but had problems when I 
upgraded to 16.04.

I have installed Ubuntu Linux and other distros dozens of times without 
problem, but this time I got careless. The installer found my Mate 
installation and asked if I wanted to install beside it or erase and 
replace it. I clicked erase and replace. The installation went smoothly 
and when it was done, I rebooted.

I was surprised not to see a Grub menu of OS options. I've heard Grub 
horror stories, so I thought something was corrupt in my boot options. 
Then, it hit me. I checked my file system and there it was... or wasn't. 
Not only had the installer erased my Mate partition, but it had erased 
my Win10 partition as well. I no longer had Windows on my computer.

Fortunately, I frequently backup my important data, but for the life of 
me, I can't find my Windows restoration CDs (the computer is about six 
years old, and we have moved twice in the past year.)

So, for now, I am single booting Ubuntu Unity 14.04. Actually, this may 
be a blessing in disguise. I have always wanted to abandon Windows 
entirely just to see if I could do *everything* in Linux. I've never had 
the guts to do it. Now, I have to see if I can live without Redmond. 
But, as a remaining crutch, I still have an old XP desktop and my wife's 
Vista laptop if needed in a pinch.

But, to the question at hand. The slow response time in Calc that I was 
experiencing in Ubuntu Mate is now gone. Of course with such a drastic 
solution, I've changed so many variables that I doubt I'll ever know 
what the true problem was. Perhaps I just had a corrupt user profile 
that needed changed on my Mate system. Had I only tried that, I may have 
saved myself the loss of Win10 (not that I ever really liked it anyway).

Oh, well, live and learn. At any rate, it does feel nice to have a 
really clean computer with a crisp fast OS and a well-behaving LO.

Cheers, y'all.

Virgil

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