Windows 7 v/s Ubuntu 9.10 – Comparative Study of Operating Systems

By: Pankaj Shrivastava

Windows 7:

UI (User Interface) Enhancements:

1) A redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar
2) A new control panel interface
3) Windows Explorer now includes a slideshow feature that changes the desktop background in a designated amount of time
4)Start menu and window management enhancements
5)The user interface for font management has been overhauled

System Requirements:

1) Faster boot speed
2) The DirectX version has been updated to 1
3) Multi-touch support for Tablet PCs and other capable devices
4) Native WWAN support, similar to native WiFi added in Vista
5) Enhanced security features

Ubuntu 9.10:

UI (User Interface) Enhancements:

1) Overall theme refresh
2) Using the most up-to-date GNOME version
3) A redesigned login manager

System Enhancements:

1) Faster boot speed
2) Ext4 will be the default file system
3) Ubuntu One client will be installed by default

Additional Features

1) Empathy Instant Messenger will replace Pidgin
2) Will utilize GRUB 2 as its default boot loader

Our IT Comments:

1) Windows and Mac OS X is trying to be like Linux right now –fast and resource efficient. On the other hand, Linux on the desktop is still polishing its user-interface perhaps to be like Windows or Mac OS X.

2) We found the best O/s capabilities in Linux 9.0, If someone / organization migrates from one version to another version of windows o/s its worthless, better to move with growing technology providing by Linux 9.0 O/s.

TECHNICAL COMPARISON BETWEEN WINDOWS 7 & UBUNTU 9.10:

1) Install Time in Seconds

At first glance, we can see very clearly that Ubuntu installs far faster than either version of Windows. And, while that’s true there is one important mitigation: both Windows Vista and Windows 7 run system benchmarks part-way through the installation to determine the computer’s capabilities.

2) Install Mouse clicks

Surprisingly, Ubuntu 8.10 gets it done with half the clicks of Windows 7. NB: hopefully it’s clear this doesn’t make Ubuntu 8.04 twice as easy to install. Measured in mouse clicks; fewer are better

3)Disk Space Used:

While some people complain that we used the Ultimate editions of both Vista and Windows 7, they probably forget that the standard Ubuntu includes software such as an office suite as standard. NB: Vista failed to detect the network card during install, leaving us without an internet connection until a driver was downloaded on another computer.

4) Boot up and Shutdown time:

5) Shutdown time in seconds:

Windows lags a little behind the Linux, with 64-bit again proving a sticking point – this time for Windows Vista.

IO Testing:

To test file system performance, we ran four tests:

• Copying large files from USB to HD
• Copying large files from HD to HD
• Copying small files from USB to HD
• Copying small files from HD to HD

The HD to HD tests copied data from one part of the disk to another as opposed to copying to a different disk. For reference, the large file test comprised 39 files in one folder, making 399MB in total; the small file test comprised 2,154 files in 127 folders,  making 603MB in total. Each of these tests were done with write caching disabled to ensure the full write had taken place.

USB Flash Drive to Hard Disk

Hard disk to Hard Disk

Large File USB to Hard Disk

Large File Hard Disk to Hard Disk

64 Bit O/S Testing with python 2.5

Comments on 64 bit O/s testing:

It’s clear from that graph that having a 64-bit OS can make a real difference in compute-intensive tasks, but it’s not too pleasing to see Windows pip Linux to the post in nearly all results.

Switching to ext4

Ext3 & Ext4 File systems

Although there’s no difference in shutdown speed, the boot time using ext4 dropped by 8 seconds, which is a fair improvement. We can probably discount the USB to HD tests simply out of error margin, which leaves the HD to HD tests, and there we find a very healthy boost: 3.7 seconds were shaved off the small files test, making ext4 about 25% faster. Our tests also showed an improvement in the large file test, but it’s not as marked.

Conclusions:

Benchmarks are always plagued with questions, uncertainties, error margins and other complexities, which is why we’re not going to try to look too deeply into these figures. Obviously, we’re Linux users ourselves, but our tests have shown that there are some places where Windows 7 really is making some improvement and that’s good for competition in the long term.

However, Linux isn’t sitting still: with ext4 now stable we expect it to be adopted into fairly quickly. Sadly, it looks like Ubuntu 9.04 won’t be among the first to make the switch, so users looking to get the best performance from their Linux boxes will either have to fiddle with the default options, have patience, or jump ship to Fedora – which will be switching to ext4 in the next release.

Author: Mr. Pankaj Shrivastava

For further information and details, please contact at: pshrivastava@gfl.co.in

Tags: Comparison between Windows 7 & Ubuntu 9.10, Windows 7 v/s Ubuntu 9.10

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 5:32 am and is filed under Application Development. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.