[GTALUG] Ubuntu 20.04.2 is groaning

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Chris Aitken via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| owner at owner-HP-Compaq-8000-Elite-CMT-PC:~$ free -h

Which model of HP-Compaq-8000-Elite computer is this?
What's the processor?
Do you have a video card?

The GPU built into old Intel processors is not really great for gnome.

My superstitious understanding is:
- gnome's compositor uses 3d graphics primitives.
- the i915(?) video driver emulates them in software.
- the result is quite sluggish
I'm not sure of this -- I haven't needed to know.

All this is needlessly wasteful.  If you don't need gnome, consider
running a different desktop.  Unfortunately, KDE is no better.

A new video card could solve this, but they are unreasonably expensive
these days, especially when you are upgradding an old machine.