[Opera-Linux] Very slow GUI on Linux

[Larry Clapp]

On Thu, Jun 14, 2007 at 06:29:17AM -0600, Ed Santiago wrote:
> >when I press Ctrl+Tab Opera instantly shows me list of all open
> >tabs, then I press Ctrl+Tab to select some other tab and when I
> >release keys the list of open tabs is still visible for a few
> >seconds. During this time (between releasing keys and disappearing
> >list of open tabs) all keyboard focus related things works very
> >bad.
> 
> Just for support: the same thing happened to me too.  Opera 9.20 on
> Gentoo.  Switching tabs took about 5 seconds.

I've experienced the slow performance on Opera 9.21 (using the
registered version, if it matters) as well.  I've considered switching
to some other browser, but haven't yet.

I noticed it most after I'd visited a page (such as anything at
YouTube) that had embedded video (i.e. a Flash plugin).  The slowness
persisted even after I closed the page.  The slowness still occurs
even though I first removed all plugin directories from my plugin
path, and then even though I completely disabled all plugins.

I found that restarting Opera restores performance, but it gets slow
again if I revisit anything with Flash, and I have to restart again.

The slowness extends even to Opera underlining links that I hover the
mouse over.  "Before slowness" I can move the mouse as fast as I want,
and Opera underlines links as fast as I move the mouse; "after
slowness" there's a (comparatively) serious delay, on the order of
several tenths of a second.

Version 9.21 
Build 641
Platform Linux
System i686, 2.6.15.8.2007.06.12
Qt library 3.3.7
Java Java Runtime Environment installed

Debian, mostly "stable", some "testing".  1.3 GHz cpu.

-- Larry