Slow browser loading Firefox

[letdowncrush]

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this but figured I'd give it a shot.

I should probably start off by saying that I'm pretty much new to Linux so apologize in advance for any missteps.

Basically, I got a Acer Revo R3610 off eBay with the hope of using it as a cheap computer to stream video and do a bit of light browing on. It's running Intel Atom 1.6 and has around 3GB of RAM. Windows 10 ran like an absolute dog so figured I'd switch to Linux.

Navigating around Linux Lite is pretty snappy but loading up a browser (e.g. Firefox) and it gets pretty laggy. YouTube near enough brings things to a crashing halt with CPU usage hitting ~90%.

Have I done something wrong or do I simply have unreasonable expectations of this machine?

System Info -> Summary shows:
Processor      : 4x Intel® Atom™ CPU  330  @ 1.60GHz
Memory      : 2821MB (1067MB used)
Operating System      : Linux Lite 3.0
Resolution      : 1360x768 pixels
OpenGL Renderer      : ION/integrated/SSE2
X11 Vendor      : The X.Org Foundation
-Multimedia-
Audio Adapter      : HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
-SCSI Disks- ATA TOSHIBA MK1652GS

Any advice much appreciated.

[torreydale]

From my experience and based on your hardware, I would advise you to try booting to the Live Media of Linux Lite 2.6 and see how that runs.  Also consider the 32 bit option of Linux Lite 2.6 or 3.0. 

[gold_finger]

@letdowncrush,

When you had Win 10 on it, how was browser performance on youtube?  Any better than with LL?  Or about the same?

Generally speaking, most mainstream browsers (Firefox, Chrome, etc.) have grown "heavier" over the years, (mostly to accommodate the changing nature of web content that sites provide these days).  Unfortunately, that means for more sluggish performance when running them on older or underpowered systems -- particularly on sites that have flash content, or streaming videos.

I've got a Dell Latitude 2120 with the following specs:

Code:

bill@Latitude-2120 ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: Latitude-2120 Kernel: 3.16.0-38-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.2 (Gtk 2.24.23) Distro: Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela
Machine:   System: Dell product: Latitude 2120
           Mobo: Dell model: 0YY3FH Bios: Dell version: A00 date: 10/27/2010
CPU:       Single core Intel Atom CPU N455 (-HT-) cache: 512 KB flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 3324.63
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1334.00 MHz 2: 1334.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel IGD x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.16.0-38-generic
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter driver: bcma-pci-bridge bus-ID: 0c:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57760 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 ver: 3.137 bus-ID: 09:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 160.0GB (8.4% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST9160821AS size: 160.0GB
Partition: ID: / size: 15G used: 4.4G (32%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 3.22GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 46.5C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 155 Uptime: 6 min Memory: 166.8/2009.2MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11) inxi: 1.9.17

It handles most things just fine, but when I play youtube videos in full-screen mode they are a little choppy and the CPU is close to maxed-out.  Not much I can do about that -- it is what it is.  If I'm just clicking around youtube watching short clips, I just don't do it in full screen.  CPU usage is still pretty high, but videos are not so choppy.  However, if I'm watching something longer (like a movie), I just stream it directly thru VLC and that works fine in full-screen mode and the CPU usage is around 60% instead of in the 90's.  You might want to try that for watching longer videos.

• Copy the url of the youtube page for the video
  
• Start VLC
  
• Go to Media -> Open Network Stream
  
• Paste the url into the address box
  
• Click "Play"
  

Also, browser addons like Adblock Plus and NoScript do help speed things up a bit by blocking a lot of the unnecessary clutter on various sites.  Adblock does its thing without you needing to interact with it.  However, NoScript will take some time to get used to if you're not familiar with it.