Revisiting Linux Part 1: A Look at Ubuntu 8.04
by Ryan Smith on August 26, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Linux
Browser & Video Benchmarks
Next up we have our full suite of benchmarks for Firefox, along with a look at video playback performance.
As we discussed in our look at Firefox, the Linux version of Firefox is not compiled with profile guided optimizations, and as a result it underperforms the Windows version in CPU-heavy tasks such as Google’s V8 Javascript benchmark. Running the Windows version under Wine closes this gap, however it’s a limited solution since there are other performance problems (mainly with Flash) in that configuration.
Speaking of Flash, we mentioned previously that it’s slower under Ubuntu (and virtually every other OS) than it is under Windows. This is one of the worst case scenarios, and as GUIMark is capped at 60fps it may actually be worse if we could go higher.
For another look, here’s the CPU usage of Firefox while watching an HD YouTube video. Ubuntu once again underperforms compared to Windows, but not by nearly as much as the worst-case scenario.
In our page loading tests however, this difference melts away. The total loading time of our 4 pages is 12 seconds under both Ubuntu and Vista.
Finally we have VLC as our Linux video playback benchmark. While VLC is not the default media player for Ubuntu, we’re using it instead of Tote due to the fact that it’s cross-platform. Here we’re taking a look at a 30 second section of a 720P H.264 encoded movie.
There’s an interesting phenomena here with respect to CPU usage. VLC uses roughly the same amount of CPU time on both operating systems, however we caught Ubuntu’s X server eating up additional CPU time on Ubuntu, while Windows’ Desktop Window Manager did not move. We’re not entirely sure what’s going on, but it looks like X needs to burn extra CPU time on video playback.
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sheh - Thursday, August 27, 2009 - link
Also, it's "into", not "in to".Anyway, an interesting read. Thanks.
sheh - Thursday, August 27, 2009 - link
Also, it's "into", not "in to".Other than that, an interesting read. Thanks.
ssj4Gogeta - Thursday, August 27, 2009 - link
nevertheless is one "world"?:P
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
Noted and fixed. Thank you.ClownPuncher - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
Web browsing page - Ariel should read Arial when talking about fonts?pcfxer - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
Ease of use of Ubuntu is superseded by PC-BSD and its PBI packages. PC-BSD also takes MUCH less time to install than Ubuntu.Souka - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
I use PC-DOS 1.0aRuns very fast on my Core i7 setup, and I haven't even overclocked it yet.
ap90033 - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
You probably can run more games in that than linux LOL...Penti - Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - link
You can run dosbox or dosemu in Linux just like in Windows...superfrie2 - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
I'm not quite sure I agree with your criticism of .iso mounting in linux. The mount -o loop command is very easy to use after you've done a couple of times. In fact, I think it is far better than using D tools in windows because you don't have to worry about unclicking all the gay-ware it tries to get you to install.Also, I'm not sure I agree with your pseudo dislike for some forms CLI. CLI is far more powerful than what its GUI based copies tries to accomplish. As a matter of fact, the more I learn about linux's CLI, the less I use the GUI. I find myself only using the GUI for web browsing on a regular basis.
However, when looking at the linux GUI, compiz fusion is simply amazing. When I have a shitload of stuff open, compiz allows me to organize all of my windows and access them very efficiently. In fact, when I use windows for games, I feel handicapped.
The most interesting part your testing was that windows applications running under wine outperformed linux native applications. I look forward to hearing more about that aspect like you mentioned.