[Sussex] Linux faster than Widows for looking at Web Sites

[John Milbank]

Recently I reported a simple trial with Windows XP Pro SP3 and Mandriva Spring 2008 installed as a dual boot.
It appeared that the Mandriva Linux system performed better at rendering web pages. Windows XP was extremely slow.

One of the members asked if I was using Intel products.

My hardware is an ECS k7s5a mainboard with an AMD Duron 1200 MHz, 512 MB of SDRAM, an 80GB hard drive, a CD Burner and a DVD Burner. The graphics card is a Nvidea TNT.

The mainboard sold in large quantities 6 years ago. It was cheap.

I asked the Tesco Internet Service if there were giving priority to Linux users. They said no.

Here is a copy of their reply:

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Dear John,

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

The reason for the speed difference is nothing to do with the broadband or internet provider, such as ourselves, but the architecture of the operating system itself. As Linux systems are designed in a completely different manner from Windows you can find that they operate much faster for standard tasks such as web-page rendering. I would suggest you speed test on your Linux system, and then on a Windows system. You will find both results are very similar.

If you are looking purely at performance speed it is possible to say that Linux systems are 'better' than Windows, but you have to bear in mind that Windows systems are designed, and have been, to run on a wide variety of machines, supported massive amounts of different hardware with minimal configuration, whereas you may find that a Linux system doesn't support a particular scanner or camera for example.

It is only in the past few years that the popularity of Linux has grown, and as it relies on Open-Source software, the range of the operating system has increased exponentially. More and more users are migrating to Linux from Windows due to reason such as you have listed, software license costs or power of operating system itself.

At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference, for example I found Linux myself to be head and shoulders above Windows for standard tasks, but as soon as I started to play games, I rapidly found it inferior due to poor compatibility. Please be aware that due to the size and complexity of all the different Linux packages (for example there are a large number of standard desktop 'distros', Ubuntu, Mandriva, Red Hat as well as all the business and power systems), we as an ISP do not support any Linux based systems.


If I can be of any more help, please do not hesitate to contact me again.


Kind regards,


Evan


Tesco broadband support team
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It appears that Linux is recognised as better than Windows for browsing the web.

I have considered the possibility that there may be a rogue program running on my Windows XP. Unfortunately I am unable to identify such a program. I have the Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, and Quick time installed as well as AVG 8.0 and Spyxbot S and D. That last two are probably necessary on Windows systems.

I also have an other computer supplied by Conrad in Germany. It has an MSI mainboard with a Via Chipset and  Sempron 2200MHz processor. 512MB of ram and 80GB hard drive.

I conclude that Windows XP SP3 needs a fast processor to run satisfactory.

Windows makes use of temporary files on the hard drive. A newer faster drive can sometimes improve the performance. 

  
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