Ubuntu- Firefox issue?

what cpu and what ram? what video card? what version of firefox?

generally speaking one of the problems with installing ubuntu within windows is it will use more resources than normal to run things. This could be the problem but without knowing your system, its just a guess at this time.

Have you installed vmware-tools? These free addons make a big difference in mouse, keyboard and monitor/screen responsiveness. The installation in windows seem to remove a layer of "slowness", probably a software layer between devices in the Virtual Machine.

It looks to me like from what you first mentioned that it is an ubuntu problem and most likely having to do with the network. Try running a game on ubuntu that has a similar clone on XP and see if the "responsiveness" is there. I would only expect about a 10-15% slowdown between Ubuntu running clean on the hardware and running under a VM.

Thanks everyone. It turns out it was just a driver issue. I thought I had enabled my video driver but it wasnt. I enabled it and that took care of the issue.