Robinson, Eric R. wrote: > Even so, I really liked Marcel's statement, "Linux bloatware > should run at least as fast as Windows bloatware out of the > box." That pinpoints my feeling exactly, which is why I > included the speed comparisons. When default installations from > different vendors yield such one-sided results, Microsoft > Outlook begins to look less like bloatware than some Linux > alternatives.
I would contend that the benchmarks performed on the given
systems were not equivalent.
Ever since about IE4, MS has been moving pieces of IE into
Windows itself. This means that me time required to "load" IE is
really only the time it takes Windows to *render* IE. This is
how IE appeared to win the browser performance battel. There was
even a related lawsuit...
A similar argument is made for the remain applications you named.
I would suggest a more fair benchmark using one or both of the
following methods:
1) load identical applications where possible on both systems.
this means timing startup of Mozilla on both Win32 and Linux.
Also, instead of MS Office, time OpenOffice or StarOffice
startup on both systems.
2) alternatively, you could make these benchmarks using linux
apps comparable to their Microsoft counterparts. For
example, with Windows on one machine and a KDE session on the
Linux machine:
KDE Windows
--- -------
Konqueror MSIE
KOffice MS Office
KNote Notepad
...etc.
Saying anything as general as "Linux bloatware should run at
least as fast as Windows bloatware" without equivalent examples
of "bloatware" is like saying that "8-cylinder Chevys should run
at least as fast as 8-cylinder Fords off the showroom floor."
This argument is ridiculous if factors such as chassis,
transmission, gearbox or even road conditions are not taken into
account.
For a crash-course education in the intricacies of benchmarking,
go to any comp.lang.* newsgroup and mention data of any other
language performing "faster."
...
On second thought, don't. I don't want anyone getting hurt over
this. :)
Cheers,
Tim Hammerquist
--
The UNIX system has a command, 'nice', which allows a user to
voluntarily reduce the priority of his process, in order to be nice
to the other users. Nobody ever uses it.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum, "Modern Operating Systems" (p.65)
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