Fedora 12 vs. Windows 7

After the grand launch of much awaited “Windows 7”, on October 22' 2009 here
comes Fedora 12, code names Constantine. In this story we will try to see how
Fedora 12 fares against Windows 7 plus will also compare the Ext4 (one of the
key highlights of Fedora 12) against Ext3 and NTFS.

One of the key enhancements in Fedora 12 is the Ext4 boot support which was
not there in Fedora 11. But coming to the desktop of Fedora 12, it still doesn't
impress me because the Compiz effects are still more or less the same and I
don't see much of the difference as compared to Fedora 11. Some other
enhancements of Fedora 12 are better touch screen and tablet support, and an
improved Bluetooth stack.

Primer on filesystems

Filesystems define a method to store and retrieve files from disk. Here we tried
comparing the two Linux Filesystems: Ext3 and Ext4 and NTFS on Windows 7. NTFS
File system has been designed for the Windows NT stream of operating systems for
enterprise users keeping in mind the security constraints. It has become the
default filesystem for all Windows based OSes. Similarly, on the Linux distros,
Ext2, Ext3, and now Ext4 are the defacto filesystems.

Tests and test bed

We ran a slew of tests on both OSes to find out the best one. Some of our tests
tried to answer common practical questions like how long does each OS take to
install? How much disk space was used in the standard installation process? How
long does boot up and shutdown time take? Plus, we ran the Geekbench benchmark.
We used a machine with an Intel Quad Core CPU @ 2.66 GHz , 4 GB RAM, and
Maxtor's 250 GB HDD@ 7200 rpm.

This graph shows the different test results in terms of time consumed. Lesser time means better performance.

The results

The testing process started with Windows 7 Ultimate( 64-bit), and the total
number of clicks to install Win 7 was just 12 as compared to Fedora which
required 16. The total time taken by Windows 7 to install was approximately 16
minutes and 50 seconds. The boot up time for Windows 7 was 45 seconds and
shutdown was only 11 seconds. We also tested the time taken to copy 100MB file
from a USB to HDD and vice-versa. It took only 14 seconds to copy from the USB
to HDD and 1 min and 8 secs to copy from an HDD to USB.

We installed Fedora 12 on the same machine and the time taken by it was just
13 mins and 3 seconds for a default package selection, beating Windows 7 by 3
mins. The number of clicks to install the Linux distro was four more than
Windows 7, ie 16. The file system was by default, Ext4. We selected the entire
drive and did not create any extra partitions on any of the OSes. The
installation time taken by Fedora 12 with Ext3 file system on it was 13 minutes
and 38 seconds.

But while testing the same with Ext3 we found that there was hardly any
difference in the bootup time as well as the shutdown time. It took around 30
seconds to bootup and 12 sec to shutdown. We also measured the time taken for
copying a 100MB file from USB to HDD and vice-versa. The USB to HDD time was 8
seconds (Ext3) and 9 sec (Ext4). To copy the 100 MB folder from HDD to USB, it
took 42 secs (Ext3) and 35 secs for (Ext4). We also copied a 1GB file on Fedora
12 file systems and the time taken was almost the same. Fedora 12(Ext3) OS took
four mins and five seconds and the one with Ext4 file system took exactly four
minutes. The time taken for Fedora 12 (Ext3 and Ext4) vs Windows 7 to boot up,
shutdown and copy files was also measured. Fedora 12 took lesser time which
means it was faster.

Here you can see Windows 7 is clearly the winner. Higher the Geekbench score, the better the performance of an OS.

Geekbench scores: Here, the scores were 4697 for Fedora 12 (Ext3),
4668 (Ext4) and 5856 for Windows 7. The scores with Ext 4 was surprisingly lower
than Ext3 and both were lower than Win 7 scores.

Conclusion: Fedora's Ext4 file system was supposed to be superior
giving better results and better performance. But this was not the case. Both
OSes showed similar results.

Madhur Chawla