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Why Linux?

http://counter.li.org/cgi-bin/certificate.cgi/416382

To find my tips on using Linux, please follow this link.

Please note that my blog posts older than 3 years will be deleted since I can not make sure whether they still work. In the world of Linux, or even the entire computer industry, 3 years is a long time. Posts that are 3 years old may even be completely useless now.

There are two good articles about the advocacy of Linux. Users just run software to make things done. If they can make things done well and cannot tolerate the cost of migarating the operating system, then no matter how well you advocate Linux, it's useless.

  1. Linux is not Windows, http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
  2. The Best Linux Distribution Will Be 'Invisible Linux', http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/05/the_best_linux.html

I love its awesome performance and simplicity of it. And it's a great platform for many open source software. I will put some discussions and benchmarking results here. I just want share some experience of me with you. Besides, Linux is not a geek-only OS. It's ok to work as a home or office PC.

Small and fast OS

Linux is just a kernel, in a narrow sense, while a Linux distribution, like Ubuntu, Red Hat, SuSe, are a collection of software besides the Linux kernel. Windows is a big bundle of lots of software. Windows has many verbose processes and runs very slow. If you Google the comparison to many scientific/engineering computing software on different platforms, you will see that their Linux versions run faster than Windows version.

Benchmarking: Booting speed

Windows bundles too many system processes, which worsen its real-time multi-tasking ability. Booting up a desktop Linux could be faster than a Windows one. I did a test on fresh Ubuntu Linux 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" and Windows Vista Home Premium, using their default installation options.
Table 1: Booting time (On HP Pavilion tx2500, 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2, 3 GB memory, 250 GB 5400 RPM HD)
OS Booting up time
Ubuntu Linux 9.04 32-bit 27 seconds
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit 45 seconds

To be continued...