Mythbusting Linux: Linux is faster than Windows
Submitted by srlinuxx on Mon, 01/21/2008 - 23:24.
The question of which operating system is faster is often heard in Windows vs. Linux debates, but unfortunately it is very common that total crap is said or written about it. What is surprising about it that even information sources that you might consider somewhat professional can be totally wrong in their beliefs, or just fail to be objective while passionately debating for the operating system they favour. Couple of days ago I saw Desktoplinux.com making a statement that OpenSUSE or PCLinuxOS 2007 require far less resources than Windows Vista or XP. So which one is really the best performing or least resource hungry?
In making a Windows vs. Linux comparison we have to be distinct that what are we actually comparing. Linux comes in all shapes and sizes, and actually Linux only refers to the kernel itself, while various Windows editions have been released as well. Therefore we are comparing performance of systems designed for similar use cases, focusing on modern desktop Linux distributions in comparison to Windows XP and Vista.
When Linux fans are ranting about Windows XP’s performance, they tend to forget that it was released back in 2001.
Linux is actually much slower than windows in certain cases.
It depends on the desktop environment. KDE 3.5 is slower than windows XP but not much slower.
Xfce and gnome (using a recent gtk+) are much much slower than windows XP. gtk+2 is very slow even when you have 1GB ram.