Ubuntu Beats Windows 7

[simplezz]

In the mother of all grudge matches, Tom?s Hardware has pitched Windows 7 against Ubuntu 11.10 in a dizzying array of benchmarks ? and the winner might surprise you.

Out of six test categories ? Start and stop times, File copy times, Archiving, Multimedia, System, and Gaming ? Oneiric Ocelot came out on top in three, while Windows 7 won none. File copying, Multimedia (transcoding, image processing), and System (CPU/memory benchmarks) were all faster on Ubuntu. Even in gaming, often listed as one of the most compelling reasons to use Windows, Ubuntu and Windows are level pegged.

Source

[cork1958]

I'll give the Ubuntu team credit. It's come a long way since version 5.04, which was the first time I tried it. I think I've tried every version for at least a little while, but usually went back to Zenwalk mostly. Don't know what it is I like about that distro so much.

[simplezz]

I'll give the Ubuntu team credit. It's come a long way since version 5.04, which was the first time I tried it.

I agree. Ubuntu today is a very fluid and easy experience. It's a great introduction to the Linux world.

[Motoko.]

I just wish my DiNivo keyboard still worked, the recent release breaks support for this keyboard. Everything else on Ubuntu though is really smooth

[Raa]

When all my hardware and software works on Ubuntu (or any other Linux flavour), it will beat Windows. And not a second before.

I'm not anti Linux or pro Microsoft, just to clarify. :)

[simplezz]

When all my hardware and software works on Ubuntu (or any other Linux flavour), it will beat Windows. And not a second before.

Just out of interest, what hardware are you running that doesn't work under Linux?

I'm not anti Linux or pro Microsoft, just to clarify. :)

No problem buddy. I think constructive criticism is healthy. Linux isn't perfect by any means.

[Raa]

Just out of interest, what hardware are you running that doesn't work under Linux?

No problem buddy. I think constructive criticism is healthy. Linux isn't perfect by any means.

I've had a lot of trouble in the past with printing, but more recently my tv tuner, sound card, wireless and a few legacy hardware devices don't play nice with Linux. Some of those things I can shrug off, but others are a requirement!

I don't mind Linux on the whole, I use it a lot at work (servers mainly) and it does it's job well.

[fsX]

This is proof that 2012 is the year of desktop linux.

[simplezz]

I've had a lot of trouble in the past with printing, but more recently my tv tuner, sound card, wireless and a few legacy hardware devices don't play nice with Linux. Some of those things I can shrug off, but others are a requirement!

Fair enough. It's true that some printers manufacturers don't support Linux very well. I've found from experience that HP printers usually well out of the box.

I use an Audigy 2 sound card myself, which works out of the box like most creative sc's. Which sc do you have?

I've found most wireless, sound cards etc work out of the box these days with Linux. There's an odd manufacturer which is problematic, but they are getting fewer with every release. Maybe you will have better luck in the future :)

I don't mind Linux on the whole, I use it a lot at work (servers mainly) and it does it's job well.

Great to hear. It's nice to be able to try out different systems.

[Andre S. Veteran]

But can it run Crysis?

[simplezz]

This is proof that 2012 is the year of desktop linux.

I liked 2011 myself. Kernel 3.0 was released :)

[simplezz]

But can it run Crysis?

I believe so. You'd have to run it through Wine though.

http://appdb.winehq....rsion&iId=10107

Current Gentoo Linux AMD64 Jan 17 2012 1.3.37 N/A Yes Platinum

But I think the gaming benchmark was Doom3, as both the Windows and Linux version use OpenGL. DirectX is proprietary, so it can't really be tested properly across platforms.

[Growled Member]

I'm not surprised. I use Linux every day and it works much better for me than Windows. If it didn't I wouldn't be using it.

[simplezz]

I'm not surprised. I use Linux every day and it works much better for me than Windows. If it didn't I wouldn't be using it.

Me too. I do use Windows quite often, but Linux is just so much fun :D

[Andre S. Veteran]

I believe so. You'd have to run it through Wine though.

Looks like Toms Hardware got that wrong then:

Put it this way: Ubuntu can't play Crysis. http://www.tomshardw...ew,3121-23.html

In any case it's not supported and likely to be buggy. Those benchmarks are purely academic. What does it matter if the only game that's supported on Linux runs slightly faster on certain drivers. Sorry for the negativity but winning a few performance benchmarks (and losing others) isn't going to do anything for Ubuntu. Until software that matters (other than browsers) is supported on the platform, and it gets a UI that makes sense, it's going to remain as insignificant as ever.

[DeadEndAccount]

Looks like Toms Hardware got that wrong then:

In any case it's not supported and likely to be buggy. Those benchmarks are purely academic. What does it matter if the only game that's supported on Linux runs slightly faster on certain drivers. Sorry for the negativity but winning a few performance benchmarks (and losing others) isn't going to do anything for Ubuntu. Until software that matters (other than browsers) is supported on the platform, and it gets a UI that makes sense, it's going to remain as insignificant as ever.

The GUI isn't too bad given that the bigger problem is the lack of big name third party and hardware support - address those two issues and Linux would easily become an alternative to Windows tomorrow.

[chrisj1968]

Looks like Toms Hardware got that wrong then:

In any case it's not supported and likely to be buggy. Those benchmarks are purely academic. What does it matter if the only game that's supported on Linux runs slightly faster on certain drivers. Sorry for the negativity but winning a few performance benchmarks (and losing others) isn't going to do anything for Ubuntu. Until software that matters (other than browsers) is supported on the platform, and it gets a UI that makes sense, it's going to remain as insignificant as ever.

ooooh. that smells of hate.. :D

[ArialBlue]

Always be skeptical about these things.

Was Windows 7 running in high performance mode?

Surely different OS handle power conservation differently.

Were there .NET libraries being compiled in the background?

Was the indexer running?

What about Intel GPUs?

Who cares?

etc..

[still1]

UBUNTU is one good OS. I love it but the only problem i had is with battery life... i believe it going to be fixed on the next release..

its going to be awesome.

[simplezz]

Always be skeptical about these things.

Absolutely. Give it a try yourself, and see what results you get on your hardware.

Was Windows 7 running in high performance mode?

Surely different OS handle power conservation differently.

Were there .NET libraries being compiled in the background?

Was the indexer running?

The same can be done on Ubuntu. Services can be stopped, desktop effects turned off, drop down into a basic X session like TWM, or even run some of the tests using cli tools, but that wouldn't be the out of box performance and experience for most users would it?

What about Intel GPUs?

I doubt many of the 3D tests would fair well on either OS with Intel GPU's.

Who cares?

Many find such benchmarks helpful. It gives an idea of the general performance differences between platforms.

UBUNTU is one good OS. I love it but the only problem i had is with battery life... i believe it going to be fixed on the next release..

Unfortunately that's down to a PCIe power saving bug in the kernel I think.

its going to be awesome.

Looking forward to it myself too.

[ahhell]

It's the year of Linux!!! :rolleyes:

[simplezz]

Looks like Toms Hardware got that wrong then

It doesn't run natively, so technically they are right.

In any case it's not supported and likely to be buggy.

It's an option if you're a die-hard Crysis fan, but yes it's likely to have some bugs perhaps, or may need some additional configuration to get it working 100%. The ratings I saw seemed to hover around gold/platinum, which indicates for some it'll probably work out of the box, for others it may need a little tweaking.

It's nice to have the option to run our favourite Windows apps if need be. I think Wine also runs on OS X, so apple people can try out crysis too if they have good hardware :)

Those benchmarks are purely academic. What does it matter if the only game that's supported on Linux runs slightly faster on certain drivers.

Academic suggests theoretical, yet this was a real world cross-platform benchmark of three games, two of which performed better on Ubuntu. I'm sure when Oil Rush is released, we can give that a test as well.

Sorry for the negativity but winning a few performance benchmarks (and losing others) isn't going to do anything for Ubuntu.

That's ok. I thought it might be interesting because I've never actually seen real world tests like these against competing OS's. It's all in good spirits. I'm not saying one OS is better than the other. I use XP and Windows 7 daily as well, and I have no complaints about either of them.

Until software that matters (other than browsers) is supported on the platform, and it gets a UI that makes sense, it's going to remain as insignificant as ever.

That's the nice thing about free open source software, there's almost always a drop in replacement that does the same job as proprietary software, sometimes it's even better. I can then compile/run it on both Linux and Windows :)

Regarding the UI, I think that's the fun part about Linux, there's so many different experiences to try. There's something for everyone, be it KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon, XFCE, Fluxbox, Enlightenment, or the many others available. Give a few a try, you might like them :)

[coth]

Source

it would win two most important - functionality and design

[cork1958]

When all my hardware and software works on Ubuntu (or any other Linux flavour), it will beat Windows. And not a second before.

I'm not anti Linux or pro Microsoft, just to clarify. :)

I would really like to run Ubuntu on my wife's computer, but can't for the life of me, get the stupid usb speakers to work!!

I've spent hours trying to get it, but it just won't work!! :(

[KiHu]

I would really like to run Ubuntu on my wife's computer, but can't for the life of me, get the stupid usb speakers to work!!

I've spent hours trying to get it, but it just won't work!! :(

Don't you love when things just...work?