Operating Systems > Linux and UNIX

Ridiculously fast

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worker201:
Here's an article I came across about computer speed.  The author, who is a bit of an expert on open source spatial analysis tools, installed a 40GB SSD in his computer for the OS (Ubuntu), and a regular HD for the /home mount point.  Includes a super-shaky video of Ubuntu being ready to go 5 seconds after the BIOS completes.  Supposedly, the SSD only cost $100.

Also, the interesting information, which I didn't know, is that Linux only shows the login screen after all services have been started, while Windows shows the login screen while services are being started.  So a similar test couldn't be performed on Windows, because there would be no way to know when it is really finished loading.

http://fuzzytolerance.info/rant/go-buy-a-ssd-right-now/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FuzzyTolerance+%28Fuzzy+Tolerance%29

Aloone_Jonez:
Well SSDs are blazingly fast so any OS will be much faster when installed on one.

What about doing an automatic logon and comparing the speed to get to the desktop?

Surely that's more fair because often on Linux (especially with KDE) the desktop takes awhile to load.

Calum:
the same is true of ms windows, they deliberately take you to the desktop ages before the computer's really ready to work.

imho it should be the time taken for the disk to stop loading the OS up after the desktop's loaded (ie: when you stop hearing it thrashing around in a desperate attempt to prove it was ready all along).

worker201:
I guess you could tell for sure by monitoring the hard drive buffer for activity.  On a platter HD, you can just listen.

You can see from the video, though, that his desktop is loaded and ready to go instantly, and applications fly open at lightning speed.  I guess he's using Gnome?  Which is well known as a bloated beast.

Lead Head:
SSDs have very quick random access times. My computer is much faster on a 10 year-old 10,000RPM 73GB SCSI drive then it is on my newer 320GB 7200 RPM SATA drive. The SATA Drive even has a higher average transfer rate, but the slow access time kills it.

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