How to Make Windows Faster than Linux

TechSource ^ | 15 July 2010 | jun auza

[ShadowAce]

In terms of speed, we can't deny the fact that Linux has an edge over Windows. This is because Linux is more efficient in handling computer resources when compared to the more bloated Windows. Through this speed advantage, it has been utilized on mobile devices and desktop PCs with limited hardware capabilities. Compared with Windows, Linux desktop boots faster and applications open up quicker and run snappier inside it. Linux servers are favored against those running on Windows because aside from being fast, they are also reliable and secure. I can go on and on explaining about its quickness but since I'm here to teach you how to make Windows faster than Linux, I will now share with you these tips:

1. Defrag Windows disk drive 3X a day
Ask any PC expert and they will always tell you that to speed up Windows you have to defrag your hard disk as often as possible. So in order to make Windows really fast (faster than Linux), why not defrag your hard disk three times a day.

2. Remove anti-virus software
I know this will make Windows vulnerable to security threats such as viruses, spyware, trojans, fungus (sic), and worms. But since this is all about making Windows faster, we recommend that you remove your anti-virus software because it's a resource hog and it is one of the key reasons why your desktop is running slow.

3. Disable Automatic Updates
This is another bad idea in terms of security, but disabling automatic updates can help Windows gain some speed. Running automatic updates slows down your system as it uses computer resources to constantly check for updates like security patches. The system also regularly (more regular than normal) checks and hunts down those who are using pirated copies of Windows.

4. Upgrade RAM
Like a good old tech adviser, I encourage you to upgrade or increase your RAM to accommodate the needs of Vista or Windows 7. There's no way that you can beat a Linux desktop using just 1GB of RAM.

5. Buy a new CPU
Buy a new CPU, make it Quad Core Extreme or better. That will surely beat the s%!t out of any Linux distro running on Pentium 3.

6. Downgrade to Windows 95
If you can't afford to buy a new CPU or upgrade your RAM, find a copy of Windows 95 (preferably genuine) and install it. Your Windows desktop will now be faster than any Linux distro made from 2007 onwards.

7. Wait for Windows 9

Windows 8 might be released next year but I urge you to wait for Windows 9 as it will surely become the greatest, most secure, and fastest operating system in the history of computing. It will be virus-free, anti-virus-free, and Windows-Genuine-Advantage-Notification-free. -Those are all according to Steve Ballmer.

I know that this article is part joke, part real, but I hope you all enjoyed reading this crap stuff :-)

[ShadowAce]

[RobRoy]

Can you run windows applications on Ubuntu?

[ShadowAce]

My kids do it all the time. I run Windows programs under Fedora also.

[for-q-clinton]

This is one of the weakest articles I have read in a long long time. Either that or it’s a parody and I missed the humor.

[ShadowAce]

Yes. Did you read the last line>?

[martin_fierro]

[BigGaloot]

Downgrade to Windows 95?

Haha, sure if you don’t like using Flash, Java or most web based programs. Or, well Firefox at all. Most websites will not load because they require updated versions of the above.

[Nat Turner]

Yes he forgot the < /sarcasm> tag... this was meant to be tongue in cheek

[raybbr]

This is one of the weakest articles I have read in a long long time. Either that or it’s a parody and I missed the humor.

It's a full page of dripping sarcasm.

What programs, other than gaming that I don't play, need to run exceedingly fast? Eighty percent of Windows users are surfing the net and creating documents. What need is there for super-duper-trooper speed?

[RobRoy]

I had no idea. I created an “ubuntu” disk once, but it ran so slow on my machine that I dumped it. I also used open office on my wife’s vista laptop but the whole thing stopped working. None of the internal apps would recognise text entry. I even deleted and re-installed from the latest version. No luck.

So I bought Office 2007.

[badpacifist]

Defrag Windows disk drive 3X a day

Funny parody

[rarestia]

Yes, you can run Win apps on Linux. Just run sudo apt-get install wine. That'll download what you need.

As far as the article:

1. Defrag Windows disk drive 3X a day

Linux doesn't require defragging. You'll be hard pressed to find a Linux defragger.

2. Remove anti-virus software

No AV on Win: bad idea. No AV on Linux: No problem!

3. Disable Automatic Updates

Most Linux updates are breakfixes or content additions. Not too many mandatory security updates from the Linux home office.

4. Upgrade RAM I have an old HP Vectra 133 MHz PC with 512 MB RAM that runs Ubuntu 10.04 better than any other OS!

5. Buy a new CPU

See #4

6. Downgrade to Windows 95

Ok, gotta be sarcasm now. I wouldn't install Fedora 2 when 12 is better than the previous distros. Speaks volumes about MS

7. Wait for Windows 9

Def. sarcasm now. Windows 9? They keep changing the naming scheme. I'll give them Windows 8, but by "9" is ready, it'll be something stupid (Windows RGX Ultra-Internet Mail Warehouse Server Enterprise SP3.4 x64 edition).

[for-q-clinton]

What need is there for super-duper-trooper speed?

For home use: Games, Photo editing (including cataloging), and video editing are the three things I do that require some good speed.

[for-q-clinton]

Normally sarcasm needs to be grounded in truth. What I saw there was an article that could have been written about Windows NT not Windows 7 or Windows 2008. So was he making fun of Linux and it went over my head?

[thecabal]

Awesome article, thanks

[thecabal]

Yes, you can run most Win programs under WINE. I do it all the time.

[thecabal]

I’m guessing you ran Ubuntu as a Live CD. It is a bit slow in that mode, but if you install it properly on a HD partition it should be quite snappy. I’ve got it running very nicely on an Athlon XP 3000 with 1 GB of RAM and an old video card. Win 7 would choke and die on this system.

[ShadowAce]

Like most fanbois (of any stripe or persuasion), he was comparing Linux to what he thinks is modern .

There are very few (if any) truly objective comparisons today.

But is was mildly humorous, and this is Friday.....

[Syntyr]

hehehehe...

However in the real world...

My Quadcore Q6600 with 3 gig of RAM and running Windows Vista Business Ultimate is 21 seconds from the time I push the button to the time I have a usable desktop! Yes I have AVG antivirus installed and also Spybot Search and Destroy. I certainly don’t expect the “average” user to know how to customize the profile to accomplish this but it can be done with mainstream hardware.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I keep waiting for the "X-nux is faster than Windows" meme to be true but every time I install SuSE, Fedora Core or Ubuntu and etc, I find that to not be the case.

I really like SuSE, though. It's odd when I realize I haven't booted my laptop to Windows for a week or two.

[CA Conservative]

I run Windows programs under Fedora also.

There are a lot of things I like about Linux, but it is still not my primary desktop. I just have too many Windows programs I need in my job that have no Linux equivalent, and not all Windows programs will run under Wine.

This is just another "Linux is better than Windows" threads. In many ways, that statement is true, but until you get the level of software support (application development and support) available under Linux that you have for Windows, Linux will not be a serious challenger for the enterprise desktop. And once you do get that level of software support, you will lose a lot of the "free" nature of Linux that makes it so appealing.

[smokingfrog]

Good advice, but I prefer to use Windows 98se. It really screams on a Phenom with 4GB RAM!

[RobRoy]

>>I’m guessing you ran Ubuntu as a Live CD.<<

That is exactly what I did. Good call.

I have a pentium III that I use mainly for runing Sonar, except the box is just sitting in a closet now. I think I’ll try cleaning the hard drive, putting Ubuntu and Wine on it and give Sonar a try.

[thecabal]

It's worth a shot. With that vintage of hardware, you might want to try the Lubuntu variant:

http://lubuntu.net/

[RobRoy]

It’s was working great with Win2000 when I put it in the closet.

[ImaGraftedBranch]

Linux doesn't require defragging. As one that has developed operating systems, disk control unit firmware testing suites, and can describe to you in detail how file systems work on most mainframe and server architectures, I assure you that linux disk drives do become fragmented.

[fretzer]

>Can you run windows applications on Ubuntu?

Yes. You can run some apps under wine. Quite a few actually.

http://www.winehq.org/

Personally, what I like to do is install a windows virtual machine using virtual box and then use rdesktop to connect to the virtual machine.

http://virtualbox.org/

It works VERY well and it’s free. I have two virtual XP machines on my laptop. The laptop runs Gentoo Linux natively. Even graphics intensive tasks such as Rhino3d CAD have acceptable performance running in the virtual XP machine.

You should be able to use synaptic to install wine and/or virtualbox under ubuntu.

[CodeToad]

Step 1.: Hire a techno geek to select the “distro”, download it, install it for you, configure it, buy new hardware because that “distro” doesn’t support your hardware, reconfigure the system, show you how to use it as everything is non-standard, etc.

Step 2: Repeat, because your “distro” producer was so last week and is no longer in business.

[relictele]

Tech humor is a tenuous art at best. When it’s bad (unfunny) it’s very bad.

[mikrofon]

I can’t switch over to Linux — Linux makes me think about Ubuntu, which makes me think about Africa, which makes me think about the World Cup, which makes me think about vuvuzelas, which gives me a screaming headache...

[JoeProBono]

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That is a pretty old box...might want to look at other Distros,...Puppy and some of the slackware based distros...Vector Linux would be a good one to look at.

VectorLinux

Phoronix has a new article:

How An Old Pentium 4 System Runs With Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10

[fremont_steve]

You can run some - install Wine. Look into CodeWeaver’s supported Wine based product. It works pretty well.

[antiRepublicrat]

Actually, Windows 7 is already beating Ubuntu 10 on many benchmarks. As usual, YMMV depending on your specific software and hardware.

[antiRepublicrat]

My Quadcore Q6600 with 3 gig of RAM and running Windows Vista Business Ultimate is 21 seconds

Three year-old 2.4 GHz dual-core iMac, 3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 RAM, OS X 10.6 stock installation, maybe a few seconds slower than that. I wonder what I could do with some optimization, but then I rarely turn it off so boot time doesn't mean much.

[steve86]

I assure you that linux disk drives do become fragmented.

Man, it's a slow process, though. I have old 4GB drives with fragmentation in the single digits. Maybe if EXT4 matures enough I will convert them and defrag just for the fun of it.

[Young Werther]

Question? While online I receive the Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. Is it worth it?

[rarestia]

Perhaps I spoke a little too flippantly. Linux doesn't require defragging as often as Windows. The EXT3/4 FS is a lot better at table allocation than NTFS, would you agree? I don't understand the intricacies, but I've not read much negative review of the Linux EXT FS vs. NTFS.

[markman46]

how much ram do you have on the host and how much did you give to each VM

[ShadowAce]

I honestly do not know the answer to your question. I'm not intimately familiar with IE8, as I use firefox.

I don't think it could hurt, though.

dayglored may be able to answer your question better than I can.

[fretzer]

The laptop (Thinkpad T61) currently has 3GB, 2.4GHz CoreDuo. It’s set up for triple boot linux/vista/xp but it spends most of the time in Gentoo linux. I’ve assigned 1.5GB to one of the VMs and 512MB to the other. I have a 20GB disk and 10GB virtual disk assigned respectively. Both are running XP SP3. I usually don’t run the VMs simultaneously. The CPUs idle at around 4%. There’s very little paging unless I’m doing something very memory intensive such as a large graphics model of some sort. In that case a physical machine is more appropriate but for general every day use, the VMs work great. I’ve also virtualized two domain controllers on another linux server. The VMs are running Server 2003 Enterprise.

[markman46]

OH wow, Ok, I am running PCLinuxos with 4 Gb ram, I run win7 on the vm and gave it 2 gbs ram, I am thinking of getting Mythtv up and running on a different machine and running win home server on a vm

[dayglored]

>> Question? While online I receive the Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. Is it worth it?

> I honestly do not know the answer to your question. I'm not intimately familiar with IE8, as I use firefox. I don't think it could hurt, though. dayglored may be able to answer your question better than I can.

Thanks for the referral, ShadowAce.

IE8 is a considerable improvement over IE7 (which itself was a vast improvement over IE6 for other reasons, mainly security). I consider it worth upgrading to IE8 primarily because it has a much higher degree of compatibility with standards.

It's more secure than IE7, without becoming dysfunctional about it.

It has a "compatibility mode" which makes it render more like IE6/7 for those pages where coders unwisely used Microsoft's incompatible features (and therefore I call it "incompatibility mode").

Overall I consider it a win, and recommend it if you use Internet Explorer.

Now, all the above aside, I must confess that I dislike IE (all versions), strongly prefer Firefox (which I use almost exclusively on Windows, Mac OS-X and Linux), and I only use IE under duress (e.g. MSDN downloads and other MS pages that require ActiveX). And I think it's wonderful that on Win7 they no longer bring up IE for Windows Updates (at least, not explicitly).