I have the latest version of Ubuntu, and I also use Windows 10 as dual boot. My computer is an old machine with 6gm ram, an old HDD and 2 core CPUs and 1 GB GPU. However, I want to describe my experience and see if anyone else has a similar issue or maybe a solution.
I use the same programs in each OS, when I start Ubuntu, it is fast and responsive, but after just some time, even only using the browser for simple web browsing, the whole system becomes laggy and slow, it is like something is using the system resources heavily. But indeed, I check the background tasks there are not many things. I close all the tabs, but it continues to do the same, when I restart, it becomes fast again and slows later.
However, I do the same thing in Windows 10 with even more applications and heavier browsing. 20 pages on the browser etc. Youtube videos with high resolution, Matlab open, VS code open etc. Windows does freeze time to time, doesn't respond sometimes, and of course, it takes a long time to wake up from restart etc. However, during the tasks, switching between the windows is smooth.
Compared to Ubuntu, it is way smoother. Having crashes and slow loading is less annoying than constant lagginess during simple tasks. And fans work harder on the Ubuntu, continuously. But for example, now on Windows 10, my computer uninstalling the heavy software, while I'm writing this, and 2 other programs are open alongside. And it is smooth. It can be caused by better memory usage of Windows, or better graphic performance, I am not sure. I wanted to switch to Linux completely because I like the idea of open-source, I want to learn Linux, and they always say that Linux is efficient, faster less buggy, etc. Maybe other distros are better, but as a beginner, Ubuntu is better for usage. But in my experience, it is horrible. I hope there is a solution to this.
31 Answer
I had the same issue. I found the power management on the Wifi was the cause.
Do an internet speed test when performance is poor to see if that's the issue. I checked my phone against my Ubuntu PC and found Ubuntu was very bad after a few minutes.
The solution was to turn off power management on the Wifi.
You can do this temporarily like this:iwconfig wl01 power off
If this turns out to be the issue you can modify the config for a long term fix in /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf
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