Sérgio,
Instalei no pen drive, deixando 8MiB no início da partição. Segui os tutoriais daquelas duas páginas gringas que postei, após instalação de programas, para tentar minimizar desgaste do pen drive. Rodei o Flashbench:
ricardo@ricardo-945GZM-S2:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500106780160 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976771055 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000093d8
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 976751999 488375968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
Disk /dev/sdb: 128.0 GB, 128043712512 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15567 cylinders, total 250085376 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000cbec8
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 16384 217317375 108650496 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 217317376 222437375 2560000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
ricardo@ricardo-945GZM-S2:~$ sudo flashbench -a /dev/sdb1 --blocksize=1024 --count=100
align 17179869184 pre 1.4ms on 2.15ms post 1.06ms diff 921µs
align 8589934592 pre 1.42ms on 2.24ms post 1.08ms diff 993µs
align 4294967296 pre 1.24ms on 2.08ms post 1.09ms diff 914µs
align 2147483648 pre 1.23ms on 2.06ms post 1.07ms diff 908µs
align 1073741824 pre 1.45ms on 2.06ms post 1.22ms diff 728µs
align 536870912 pre 1.45ms on 2.04ms post 1.22ms diff 706µs
align 268435456 pre 1.41ms on 2.1ms post 1.26ms diff 763µs
align 134217728 pre 1.45ms on 2.17ms post 1.35ms diff 775µs
align 67108864 pre 1.17ms on 1.78ms post 1.19ms diff 595µs
align 33554432 pre 1.36ms on 2.13ms post 1.26ms diff 823µs
align 16777216 pre 1.36ms on 2.2ms post 1.38ms diff 829µs
align 8388608 pre 1.28ms on 2.31ms post 1.34ms diff 1ms
align 4194304 pre 1.14ms on 1.29ms post 1.12ms diff 155µs
align 2097152 pre 1.1ms on 1.26ms post 1.12ms diff 148µs
align 1048576 pre 1.11ms on 1.28ms post 1.12ms diff 160µs
align 524288 pre 1.31ms on 1.46ms post 1.32ms diff 143µs
align 262144 pre 1.11ms on 1.25ms post 1.11ms diff 140µs
align 131072 pre 1.12ms on 1.29ms post 1.06ms diff 204µs
align 65536 pre 1.12ms on 1.29ms post 1.05ms diff 203µs
align 32768 pre 1.12ms on 1.26ms post 1.12ms diff 136µs
align 16384 pre 1.12ms on 1.17ms post 1.11ms diff 60.5µs
align 8192 pre 1.12ms on 1.16ms post 1.12ms diff 33.5µs
align 4096 pre 1.04ms on 1.23ms post 1.07ms diff 178µs
align 2048 pre 1.05ms on 1.09ms post 1.03ms diff 45µs
ricardo@ricardo-945GZM-S2:~$
Abaixo, imagens de vários momentos usando o System Monitor (um achado! não vi isso no Windows nativo)
http://imageshack.us/i/5nrhsip
http://imageshack.us/i/b5iw7p
http://imageshack.us/i/0wlva1p
a primeira, somente página do Yutube aberta - 5nrhsip;
a segunda, momento de print screen - b5iw7p;
a terceira, com duas páginas Youtube e processador de texto aberto com um arquivo - 0wlva1p.
Não tenho notado nada desagradável, a não ser em raros momentos, a tela escurece quando o Firefox está acessando alguma página (freeze?).
Bem, a par das configurações do meu pc, acho que está de bom tamanho, não?
Estou me apaixonando cada vez mais pelo Ubuntu, cada vez uso menos o Janelas do tio Bill.