Start up times: Comparing Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04

turgon

Out of curiosity I compared startup times for Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04 on my dual-boot computer.

The first thing I always do when I load up my pc on either OS is check my email. This test times how long it takes to reach the login screen, login, reach the desktop, open Firefox, then finally load Gmail.com. I have Firefox as desktop icons on both OS's, and I have Gmail as a icon favorite in both my Firefox bookmark toolbars. Also, I have the same password for both. There are no advantages either way asfaik*.

|Windows XP|Ubuntu 9.04|Difference (how faster is Windows)
1. Select OS in GRUB|0:00.00|0:00.00|+0:00.0
2. Reached the login screen|0:29.02|0:33.33|+0:04:31
3. Login screen details filled in|0:34.33|0:37.16|+0:02.83
4. Reached the desktop|0:42.00|0:50.17|+0:08.17
5. Firefox opened|2:14.80|1:02.46|-1:12.34
6. Gmail loaded|2:30.03|1:06.06|-1:23.97


I heard a rumor in that an attempt to appear fast, Windows is still loading after the desktop appears. These results would support that. It took 12 seconds to load Firefox in Ubuntu after the desktop appeared, compared to over a minute and a half for Windows!

Just out of curiosity. Another reason with which to challenge peoples predisposition to Windows!

*if someone knows any reason why they may not be equally matched, ex different partition sizes, leave a comment!

BopNiblets

Just tested from pressing power button to Firefox homepage:
Linux Mint, ext4, select Mint in Grub, Firefox set to run on login (no login screen): ~1:07
Windows 7, (with login screen), then clicking on Firefox icon in taskbar: ~1:07
Huh...

Have you got ext4?

turgon

No, ext3. I do some half important work on my Ubuntu parition and I heard ext4 was unstable so I never went for it.

Talking about start up speeds, I read an article saying they were aiming for a 10 second start up in Ubuntu 10.4. Could be untrue. If not, thats sick.

An Fear Aniar

turgon wrote: »

Talking about start up speeds, I read an article saying they were aiming for a 10 second start up in Ubuntu 10.4. Could be untrue. If not, thats sick.

I've got a test partition of Karmic Koala 9.10 Alpha, so far it's a bit faster but not much, about 55 seconds from selecting the OS at the boot screen to a full working desktop - this is the full bloated desktop though, normally I would prune out a good few startup applications.

.

Khannie

/me tests.....

Khannie

From grub screen to gmail login took 48 seconds for me. Running xubuntu 9.04 with ext4 on a HP laptop (1.86GHz pentium M and 1G of ram). I do have an SSD, but it is utterly sh1t (certainly no faster than a decent 3.5" SATA drive..hdparm reports around 65MB/s ).

Turgon: I had trouble migrating from ext3 to ext4 (grub related), but a clean install with ext4 was grand and shows a decent performance increase.

karlr42

Reached the login screen: 0:29.02___0:33.33
Login screen details filled in: 0:34.33___0:37.16

So, it took you 5.31 seconds to enter a username and password in Windows, and 3.83 seconds to do the same in Ubuntu? Your test has no merit when it relies on your typing, it should remove any chance of human error(auto-login on both OSs).
Besides, this kind of thread only existis to lead to flame war and trolling.

Orion

So take away the extra 2 seconds - it's still a valid test. It just makes it 1:21 faster than Windows.

From grub mine took 1:20 to get to gmail (which is my homepage). 3.06 seconds of that was putting in my login details in Ubuntu. That's in 8.10 on ext3.

turgon

karlr42 wrote: »

Your test has no merit when it relies on your typing

Im glad someone brought this up; not so glad they jumped to the first conclusion they could come to.

Upon being presented with the Windows login screen I clicked my username and there was a delay* before the password box came up.

I have the same eight letter password for lots of things, so Im used to typing it fast. I did it the same speed for both OS's. So please dont jump on me. Thanks.


*A delay is defined as "To cause to be later or slower." So thus was the Windows login slower than the Ubuntu one.

EvilMonkey

Do the windows and Linux versions of firefox have the exact same startup time?
Everyone knows xp can have terrible startup times.
Also not really fair to compare an OS released in 01 with one in released in 09.

turgon

Thats extremely true actually. However I was comparing as a personal matter. Also some people are still getting XP put on their new computers.

JC 2K3

What services/apps are automatically loaded in XP versus Ubuntu?

Have you tried booting both up, waiting 5 minutes, then measuring how long it takes to load firefox in each?

turgon

Asfaik I have all non-microsoft services turned off in XP, but I should double check. Im just using a basic Ubuntu Desktop install, I haven't edited any start up configs.


The second one would be interesting.