Ubuntu 12.04 LTS in Virtualbox SLOOOOOWWWWWW

I've been trying to install Ubuntu 12.04 LTS in Virtualbox 4.2.4 for about a week now.  It would install eventually, but it was slow to do so, and almost unbearable to actually try to use.  Someone mentioned that if you had multiple CPUs configured for the VM, change it to one.  I had only one CPU assigned, so I changed it to two, and restarted my install.  It completed in less than five minutes.  Moral, if your having performance issues installing or using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, make sure you're using more than one CPU.

Linux Mint 14 - Suggestions in Search Bar from Google - Why doesn't this work?

So, I've been demoing various Linux OS' for a few days trying to figure out what to use to replace Ubuntu (12.10).  I didn't like Unity, I just didn't like the approach they were using.  I tried out three or four other distro/versions/respins before I tried out Linux Mint 14 (Cinnamon).  After a couple of hours of playing around with it, I was convinced that it was the right choice for my work flow/environment/etc.  I notice that Firefox doesn't even include Google for use in the Search Bar.  Fine, I follow their procedure and add it.  I look stuff up, I get a lot of Abstracts and papers, and not the results I was looking for.  Turns out I'd installed the Google Scholar search engine instead of the plain Google.  Fine.  Correct that, and now while I can search and they return "correct" results, I'm not getting any "suggestions" as I type my searches in to the Search Bar.  After a few hours (too many) I begin to suspect that its the search provider xml that is installed via the Linux Mint website,  I pull a copy of the search provider off a Windows box, drop it in the searchplugins directory, and magically it all work now.  The big tip off is that the Google icon for the version install by the Linux Mint website used a different icon.

Hope that helps someone.


*EDIT* - You can also download a fresh copy of Firefox and extract the searchplugin xml files from there and copy them over to your profile.

**EDIT** - You can also look through the Google entries at http://mycroft.mozdev.org/ to find a search provider that does what you want (I wanted Suggestions).