Making Ubuntu usable

Take note that the logon screen offers you a choice of three 'sessions', which you choose between by (before you log on) clicking the unlabelled Ubunto logo button towards the top right corner of the screen.

The choices are:

• Ubuntu Studio - just about usably slow (the default when I installed it)
• Ubuntu - unusably slow
• Xfce - fastest of the three. Usable.

I also recommend adding '-inurl:askubuntu' to all searches for answers to this issue (or indeed any issue). This will save you having to wade through acres of unhelpful cut-and-paste.

Scite

Scite properties files have significant whitespace:

x=1

sets 'x' to '1' whereas

x = 1

sets 'x ' to ' 1'

I've written a few config file parsers in my time, and I know laziness when I see it.