Originally Posted by Akria

Linux distributions have a better development model, so it results in higher-quality code. In most circumstances a Linux distribution will be quicker than a Windows installation - although KDE, the environment for Kubuntu, is a bit of a resource hog.

For better performance there's GNOME, although that's only slightly better in terms of performance; xfce, which should be much better, and then a wide range of various window managers and combinations of software which will result in extremely good performance.

Ubuntu uses the GNOME desktop and Xubuntu uses xfce. There's an unofficial distribution called Fluxbuntu which uses the FluxBox window manager, for much improved performance, but I tend to find its usability lacking.

Originally Posted by Ayn Rand

"Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that his life and his work do not belong to him, but belong to society, that the only justification of his existence is his service to society, and that society may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good."