Boot time, or system startup speed, is a key performance factor in any operating system. As the ever-present competition between Microsoft and Linux rises to a new level with the introduction of Windows 7, the debate about which is faster is of major importance. Today, let’s take a look at the boot times for both systems and see which comes out on top.
To begin, we need to understand the components that make up the boot process. For Windows 7, the boot process consists of the system Power-On Self Test (POST), the Operating System Boot Loader, and the Operating System services initialization. For Linux, the boot process is simpler and consists of the Linux Kernel Boot sequence and User Space initialization.
Now, let’s take a look at the actual boot times. With a fresh install of both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04 on a Dell Dimension E521, Windows 7 required on average 70 seconds to boot to the logon screen. Ubuntu 10.04 averaged 24 seconds on the same system. This means that, on average, Ubuntu boots almost 3 times faster than Windows 7.
Clearly, this initial test shows that Linux wins when it comes to boot time. But what sort of optimizations can we make to both Windows 7 and Linux to improve the boot times even further?
For both systems, one key way of speeding up the boot time is to reduce the number of services that run on initialization. Windows 7 provides the “System Configuration” utility for managing unnecessary services. For Linux, there are a plethora of tools that can help, such as chkconfig or sysv-rc-conf. Additionally, for both systems, reducing the number of startup applications is also a great way to speed up the process. The “msconfig” tool in Windows 7, or “startup applications” in Ubuntu provide simple interfaces to disable any unnecessary applications.
Ultimately, when it comes to boot times, the winner is Linux. Through simple optimization techniques, like reducing the number of services and startup applications, boot times can be improved even further on both systems. However, the initial results show that when it comes to raw performance, Linux is the clear winner.
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