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OS Performance — Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 9.10
BeckySharp writes "With the nearly simultaneous release of Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 'Snow Leopard' (available right now) and Microsoft's Windows 7 (available Oct. 22), you get the inevitable debate: Which is the better operating system, Windows 7 or Snow Leopard? To help determine that, Computerworld's Preston Gralla put both operating systems through their paces, selected categories for a head-to-head competition, and then chose a winner in each category." Relatedly, Phoronix has posted Snow Leopard vs. Ubuntu 9.10 benchmarks. They ran tests from ray tracing to 3D gaming to compilation. Their tests show Ubuntu 9.10 winning a number of the tests, but there are some slowdowns in performance and still multiple wins in favor of Snow Leopard, so the end result is mixed.
Besides the issues already mentioned (OS name? Seriously? Major hardware differences on test machines? No actual speed tests of any kind?) there are several parts of the article which are just plain wrong: 1. Installation. You do have to decide with Snow Leopard if you want to upgrade or clean install--it's just that normally that decision is suggested for you. Anybody competent enough to be upgrading their operating system should know that typically, inserting the disk while booted will start an OS upgrade, and booting from the disk will allow a clean install. There's also no mention in this section of the fact that of course Snow Leopard won't have any driver issues; Apple has a limited set of hardware to work with, while Microsoft has to deal with everything. I think Microsoft's solution of installing basic drivers, then getting the correct ones through Windows Update, is a lot better than the alternative of installing most or all of the possible drivers you might need, bloating your installation a several GB. 2. Launching Applications. Yes, when running Internet Explorer in Windows, separate tabs will show up as thumbnails, but only in Internet Explorer. I'm surprised the reviewer didn't even try Firefox, since he apparently did in Snow Leopard. I guess some people think Firefox is more acceptable as a replacement for Safari than Internet Explorer? Additionally, it mentioned Jump Lists. I have Snow Leopard, and I can personally attest to the fact that there ARE jump lists in Snow Leopard, and they function EXACTLY like in Windows, i.e. the application can add menu items to it. Also, Snow Leopard has Alt-Tab (actually Command-Tab), that also activates with a four-finger multitouch swipe on the trackpad of a laptop (and multitouch gesture drivers are now available for older macbooks and macbook pros, which previously didn't have such gestures). 3. Enterprise Readiness. Major Blud made note of the fact that this reviewer has thrust Windows 7 into a de facto position of corporate standard. Frankly, just because businesses use Windows doesn't make Windows more enterprise ready. I happen to work in an environment that administers both Windows and Mac systems. Macintosh has had major management and IT tools for a while now, and some of the advanced features are a lot easier to manage, I think. These tools are mostly available through the Apple developer network, and through Mac OS X Server. The remote administration, imaging, and configuration services in Server are, in my opinion, on the level with Windows administration tools. That all said, the review isn't all bad. It offers an important look at the features that are important to the everyday user, and while most of us Slashdotters would be more interested in benchmarks, it's important not to lose sight of the average user. I just wish the reviewer had gotten his facts straight.
I sometimes ask revealing, often ignorant-seeming questions. Maybe they're harder to answer than you think.
If I want to run an OSX app, it's probably faster on Snow Leopard than either Windows 7 or Ubuntu 9.10 (since it doesn't run on them, AFAIK), and an Ubuntu binary is probably faster on it than Snow Leopard or Windows 7.
The real question, to me, if how well the odd Windows 7 app, that "simply cannot be avoided", for whatever reason, runs on Ubuntu 9.10 and Snow Leopard, whether in WINE, Parallels, ..., and if that is usable compared to its performance in its native Windows.
FPSs and MMO clients, for example, have generally been faster in their native Windows or simply don't run the other OSs. What about something like SolidWorks?
If the "notification area" is not called the "system tray" why is the app that displays icons in that area called "systray.exe" and not "notarea.exe"?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!