The OS is slow on older hardware

[dobkun]

i have an hp pavilion dm1(2012) and guess what, while most linux distros run fine on it, elementary has a LOT of issues, especially with the app store(which lags and freezes a LOT), and also some apps(take an eternity to load, but otherwise run fine). the browser is kinda glitchy too, but that isn't very critical. oh yeah and constant "app is not responding popups"
where the HELL are the optimizations for the slower CPUs, other linux distros actually have those.

[dobkun]

not to mention multitouch being slightly broken:

1. Without official synaptics drivers it runs perfectly fine, but some gestures like moving between workspaces and zooming in/out are NOT working, despite the touchpad supporting that.
2. Upon installing official synaptics drivers, natural scrolling just outright breaks, always forcing moving the bar instead of the content, other gestures still do not work.

[dobkun]

oh yeah and the elementary logo having glitchy blocks around it but it's not really important

[dobkun]

and then it gets even more ridiculous when we reach the default Plymouth theme (note the loading wheel)

[dobkun]

i am not sure where to submit all of this

[teamcons]

The plymouth one would be here? https://github.com/elementary/plymouth-theme

It looks like this issue isnt reported yet!

if you know how to get logs, also post em! That stuffs helps a lot

[teamcons]

i have an hp pavilion dm1(2012) and guess what, while most linux distros run fine on it, elementary has a LOT of issues, especially with the app store(which lags and freezes a LOT), and also some apps(take an eternity to load, but otherwise run fine). the browser is kinda glitchy too, but that isn't very critical. oh yeah and constant "app is not responding popups" where the HELL are the optimizations for the slower CPUs, other linux distros actually have those.

im sorry you dont have a great experience :( On a lower end Acer one it wasnt such a mess
Im not sure tbh, what could be the cause of these. I used to have the constant app not responding - now it happens only for Video...

We wouldnt be mad if you fallback to something else, but if you can get info or tweaks please do not hesitate to share, another dev or user could use those!

[ernstki]

i have an hp pavilion dm1(2012) and guess what, while most linux distros run fine on it, elementary has a LOT of issues, especially with the app store(which lags and freezes a LOT), and also some apps(take an eternity to load, but otherwise run fine). the browser is kinda glitchy too, but that isn't very critical. oh yeah and constant "app is not responding popups" where the HELL are the optimizations for the slower CPUs, other linux distros actually have those.

I don't think elementary OS is well-suited for older machines anymore, and I say that as someone who's used it as a daily driver OS more or less since 0.4 (Loki), on roughly ten-year-old hardware. A small and mostly-volunteer team can't test all these hundreds of thousands of hardware configurations, on nothing but donations — it's just the reality.

Also, things you mention sound like pretty typical Linux problems that one runs into. If everything on your Pavilion works well on another distro, why not stick with the other distro? You might be happier, performance-wise, using one with MATE or XFCE as the desktop environment.

[ernstki]

You'd only be delaying the inevitable, but you could try elementary OS 7.x¹ and see if you get better results. This is based on an older-but-still-supported Ubuntu LTS, and the kernel may be tuned better for slightly older hardware.

You may also want to look at building your own kernel, choosing only the options you need for your laptop, or investigate kernel configs that are recommended for low-end systems. I myself don't have time for this anymore, and if the things that you're posting about here are frustrating to you, you'll probably find maintaining your own custom kernel on the side even more so.

Footnotes

1. SHA256: 5c7f6b388e5787c366587985301ea05ab16e4cc0de3be2b3d6a559ce81a2f102 ↩

[ernstki]

@dobkun AppCenter has received a lot of improvements in elementary OS 8.x; surely some of those were focused on responsiveness. Of all the various "App Store" applications for Linux I've tried, though, KDE's Discover is the only one that didn't feel janky. What you experienced with AppCenter is just… the current status quo. Linux distros aren't Apple, who can afford to hire the world's best engineers to optimize the heck out of their App Store app so they don't lose sales due to slow loading times.

In elementary OS 7.x, I just avoid opening AppCenter because of these issues. I've got an autostart .desktop file that kills io.elementary.appcenter so it stays out of my dock, and I use unattended-upgrades for security updates instead. Once in a while, I open AppCenter to get pending Flatpak runtime updates, but otherwise I avoid flatpaks.¹

That said, the elementary team has committed to Flatpak. AppCenter is the officially-supported means of getting add-on software on your system. They'd be much happier if you were to stick with Flatpaks and AppCenter and report problems with AppCenter in the appropriate issue tracker. But for all Flatpak's advantages, better performance over distro packages isn't one of them.

Footnotes

1. As a long-time Debian user, I prefer to stick with distro packages for most things, plus Mozilla's .debs for Firefox and likewise for LibreOffice. ↩

[dobkun]

i think it simply has to do something with the cpu clock speed not being accounted for

[ernstki]

The project's maintainers would be delighted if you were able to dig into the issue and present a fix. It's not humanly possible for a small team on a mostly-volunteer-run project to test on every combination of hardware and please everyone.

I had a similar feeling of dismay when a Linux kernel update messed up the video display on an almost-twenty-year-old Sony VAIO all-in-one that had been running elementary OS great, for years prior to that. After hours spent recompiling kernels, tweaking GRUB boot options, and trying different distros in an attempt to fix the video, I finally relented and bought Windows 10.

Perhaps you will fare better with a distro that explicitly targets low-end systems, and be happier. If you didn't already, try a distro like Xubuntu or Mint or even Zorin Lite.

[dobkun]

Once again, they likely poorly estimate the clock speed or something similar to that as the CPU is actually this laptop’s weakest spot. From: Kevin Ernst ***@***.*** Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2025 11:41 AM To: elementary/triage Cc: dobkun; Mention Subject: Re: [elementary/triage] The OS is slow on older hardware (Discussion #795) The project's maintainers would be delighted if you were able to dig into the issue and present a fix. It's not humanly possible for a small team on a mostly-volunteer-run project to test on every combination of hardware and please everyone. Otherwise, choose a distro like Xubuntu or Mint or even Zorin Lite <https://help.zorin.com/docs/getting-started/getting-zorin-os-lite/> that targets low-end systems, and be happier. I had a similar feeling of dismay when a Linux kernel update messed up the video display on an almost-twenty-year-old system that had been running elementary OS great, for years prior to that. After hours spent tweaking and recompiling kernels and GRUB boot options, trying to make it work, I had to give up and buy Windows 10, which works fine, but felt like a betrayal. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#795 (reply in thread)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BFTDHEWIA2JVFZS4FO4EGYT3FJOAJAVCNFSM6AAAAAB6NOXVQWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTGNJXGEYDSOI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/BFTDHEUGQ3HULMMSIYAXWL33FJOAJA5CNFSM6AAAAAB6NOXVQWWGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNRIRUXGY3VONZWS33OINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTQAZ4KBW.gif> Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ernstki]

You could be part of the "they" — it's a team sport! Otherwise I don't see elementary being the solution to your problem, and hope you find something that works for you.