czr114
November 7th, 2010, 05:48 AM
Hello all,
(introduction)
First let me prefix this by mentioning that I'm categorically not referring to any issues with games or video playback in this discussion.
Let me also say that I'm not trying to dredge up the old, tired Windows vs. Linux partisanship, nor do I want to see another promising discussion derailed by such.
(background)
Here's the relevant hardware specs of the system in question:
12 cores @ 3.2GHz
16GB DDR3-1600
4x SSD in RAID-5
2x GeForce GT 220
4 Physical Displays
The system dual boots Ubuntu 10.04 x64 (GNOME) and Windows 7 x64. It is worth noting that the Windows 7 was installed from rebuilt media from which I stripped every bit of eye candy, bloat, and other such foolishness.
As a matter of comparison, the Ubuntu installation has also had all relevant eye candy and effects disabled in GNOME.
The Ubuntu installation is using the recommended NVIDIA driver with no problems. All logs for X, GNOME, NVIDIA, and related show no sort of problem or hint at any degradation from optimal.
(the issue)
I have been dual booting Linux and Windows for years. In my world, each has served a useful and necessary function, although since this new workstation came on line, the extent of the necessity of Windows is limited to Visual Studio 2010. By contrast, the Ubuntu installation serves many indispensable roles, running everything from custom software (for data processing purposes), to acting as a platform for LAMP development and testing. Thus, it can be said that the Ubuntu installation is more inherently necessary.
I'd be fine moving it to a VirtualBox and dispensing with Windows entirely, however:
Having used both side by side on this new workstation, I can, without a doubt, state that the Windows installation is far more responsive and less resource intensive for running virtually every desktop workstation task.
Under Windows, application, window, and desktop manipulation, as far as graphics calls are concerned, has been rendered almost completely imperceptible to the user.
By contrast, I haven't yet noticed that on Ubuntu.
Having dual booted both by side by side for years, there have always been those sorts of delays on both, but the difference hasn't been that noticeable. With this new workstation, however, everything from window manipulation, to scrolling, to graphic manipulation is seemingly instant on the Windows side, but carries a noticeable (but slight) delay and performance hit on the Ubuntu side.
On the Windows side, only the heaviest of web pages in Firefox (heavily adblocked and stripped of scripts and flash) appear and behave sluggishly. By contrast, an intense page can present some workload to Ubuntu.
Individually, it isn't a big deal, but cumulatively, it makes a huge difference to the power user engaged in heavy, purposeful multitasking.
On the Windows side, the entire desktop environment is being handled in DX11 with excellent use of Direct2D/3D in the appropriate applications. On the Ubuntu side, it seems like OpenGL just can't keep up.
Anyway, this train of thought was brought up by the impending release of Firefox 4, which plans to take advantage of Direct2D in Windows, but continue remaining unaccelerated in Linux.
For a heavy (and loyal) Firefox user, this makes a huge difference. The Firefox performance alone makes Windows much more responsive than Ubuntu.
A similar issue occurs in OpenOffice, which surprisingly, is much faster on Windows than Ubuntu.
This might seem like a trivial complaint to many people, but it makes a noticeable impact when multitasking with 2880x1800 pixels of real estate, and a flurry of IDEs, browser windows, utilities, text editors, sticky notes, mail clients, terminals, and everything else open, and being actively interacted with, tabbed, minimized, moved, and manipulated.
The big divide really comes in when considering that, finally, the desktop computer is running faster than the user can visually process it. Up until recently, my visual cortex had always been outperforming whatever desktop system I was using, regardless of OS or hardware.
I had been hoping to get off the Windows and go Ubuntu only, but I can notice myself spending more time doing non-OS-specific things in Windows, despite full knowledge it isn't as secure, can't be locked down as well, lacks so many wonderful features, and is a general minefield of malware.
I also have an ideological objection to unfree, closed source software, even though I am forced to buy and use it for productive purposes.
With the impending availability of a Firefox 4 RC, I am eagerly looking forward to the hardware acceleration of web page rendering, but am disappointed that no such acceleration will be available on any Linux platform.
I'm not a graphics guy, but from my research, I am getting the impression that DX11/Direct{2,3}D simply has OpenGL/X beat.
Is this an accurate assessment, or is there perhaps some setting or issue which might be degrading my Ubuntu performance?
Additionally, is there anything exciting in the OSS world's upstream which might be addressing these issues in future releases?
I hope I've simply misread some of the key differences between the two, am missing a key setting on Ubuntu, and can ditch the Windows, but that doesn't seem to be the case in fact.
Whew! That was a lot. I do hope somebody can at least put the curiosity to rest as to what's really going on here.
(introduction)
First let me prefix this by mentioning that I'm categorically not referring to any issues with games or video playback in this discussion.
Let me also say that I'm not trying to dredge up the old, tired Windows vs. Linux partisanship, nor do I want to see another promising discussion derailed by such.
(background)
Here's the relevant hardware specs of the system in question:
12 cores @ 3.2GHz
16GB DDR3-1600
4x SSD in RAID-5
2x GeForce GT 220
4 Physical Displays
The system dual boots Ubuntu 10.04 x64 (GNOME) and Windows 7 x64. It is worth noting that the Windows 7 was installed from rebuilt media from which I stripped every bit of eye candy, bloat, and other such foolishness.
As a matter of comparison, the Ubuntu installation has also had all relevant eye candy and effects disabled in GNOME.
The Ubuntu installation is using the recommended NVIDIA driver with no problems. All logs for X, GNOME, NVIDIA, and related show no sort of problem or hint at any degradation from optimal.
(the issue)
I have been dual booting Linux and Windows for years. In my world, each has served a useful and necessary function, although since this new workstation came on line, the extent of the necessity of Windows is limited to Visual Studio 2010. By contrast, the Ubuntu installation serves many indispensable roles, running everything from custom software (for data processing purposes), to acting as a platform for LAMP development and testing. Thus, it can be said that the Ubuntu installation is more inherently necessary.
I'd be fine moving it to a VirtualBox and dispensing with Windows entirely, however:
Having used both side by side on this new workstation, I can, without a doubt, state that the Windows installation is far more responsive and less resource intensive for running virtually every desktop workstation task.
Under Windows, application, window, and desktop manipulation, as far as graphics calls are concerned, has been rendered almost completely imperceptible to the user.
By contrast, I haven't yet noticed that on Ubuntu.
Having dual booted both by side by side for years, there have always been those sorts of delays on both, but the difference hasn't been that noticeable. With this new workstation, however, everything from window manipulation, to scrolling, to graphic manipulation is seemingly instant on the Windows side, but carries a noticeable (but slight) delay and performance hit on the Ubuntu side.
On the Windows side, only the heaviest of web pages in Firefox (heavily adblocked and stripped of scripts and flash) appear and behave sluggishly. By contrast, an intense page can present some workload to Ubuntu.
Individually, it isn't a big deal, but cumulatively, it makes a huge difference to the power user engaged in heavy, purposeful multitasking.
On the Windows side, the entire desktop environment is being handled in DX11 with excellent use of Direct2D/3D in the appropriate applications. On the Ubuntu side, it seems like OpenGL just can't keep up.
Anyway, this train of thought was brought up by the impending release of Firefox 4, which plans to take advantage of Direct2D in Windows, but continue remaining unaccelerated in Linux.
For a heavy (and loyal) Firefox user, this makes a huge difference. The Firefox performance alone makes Windows much more responsive than Ubuntu.
A similar issue occurs in OpenOffice, which surprisingly, is much faster on Windows than Ubuntu.
This might seem like a trivial complaint to many people, but it makes a noticeable impact when multitasking with 2880x1800 pixels of real estate, and a flurry of IDEs, browser windows, utilities, text editors, sticky notes, mail clients, terminals, and everything else open, and being actively interacted with, tabbed, minimized, moved, and manipulated.
The big divide really comes in when considering that, finally, the desktop computer is running faster than the user can visually process it. Up until recently, my visual cortex had always been outperforming whatever desktop system I was using, regardless of OS or hardware.
I had been hoping to get off the Windows and go Ubuntu only, but I can notice myself spending more time doing non-OS-specific things in Windows, despite full knowledge it isn't as secure, can't be locked down as well, lacks so many wonderful features, and is a general minefield of malware.
I also have an ideological objection to unfree, closed source software, even though I am forced to buy and use it for productive purposes.
With the impending availability of a Firefox 4 RC, I am eagerly looking forward to the hardware acceleration of web page rendering, but am disappointed that no such acceleration will be available on any Linux platform.
I'm not a graphics guy, but from my research, I am getting the impression that DX11/Direct{2,3}D simply has OpenGL/X beat.
Is this an accurate assessment, or is there perhaps some setting or issue which might be degrading my Ubuntu performance?
Additionally, is there anything exciting in the OSS world's upstream which might be addressing these issues in future releases?
I hope I've simply misread some of the key differences between the two, am missing a key setting on Ubuntu, and can ditch the Windows, but that doesn't seem to be the case in fact.
Whew! That was a lot. I do hope somebody can at least put the curiosity to rest as to what's really going on here.