On 31 Dec 99, at 18:43, John Metzger wrote:
> Hi, Is it just me or is Linux much faster when dealing with the
> internet than windows 98?
Linux is much faster in dealing with *any* sort of TCP/IP
networking than Win 9x/NT. It's also *much* more reliable.
The problem with 95/98 is that it still has the DOS stand-alone
legacy, while Linux has the Unix legacy of assuming that your
computer is always connected to a network. All M$ OSs suffer
from having a broken TCP/IP stack and really putzy
implementations of DNS and DHCP. The implementation of WINS
in Samba also seems to be faster and more reliable on a WAN
than the Mickey$oft version, but this is probably due to the way
databases are replicated across servers. Furthermore, M$
networking can be a real nightmare if you need to access multiple
WINS servers; e.g., logging on to multiple NT domains
simultaneously.
I'm using Linux on my workstation to install software all across the
U of O network. I had an NT server to do this when I went to work
there, but switched to Linux because the NT server would drop off
the network for no reason, so I would have to go back to the server
room and reboot the server. Since I have to support over 100
clients all over campus (and generally have to walk to get to them)
and my office is at the Physical Plant, this got old really quick.
This carries over to dial-up connections, also. The box I'm writing
this on is a dual-boot system and dial-up with Linux is much faster
than Win 9x (but, I'm connecting to a Sparc). A friend came over
the other day and remarked how much faster Linux is at dealing
with the 'net than Windoze, which is really impressive, because he
has a 56.6 modem and I've got a USR 28.8 Sportster, at least until
I get my IP address for DSL :) . Of course, this could be due to my
computer being a PII-450 with 256MB RAM and UW SCSI, cause
his computer is a PII-300 with 64MB RAM.
Cheers,
Dennis
"Custard pies are a sort of esperanto: a universal language."
--Noel Godin
