Here’s a comparison of the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS versus Microsoft Windows 7 performance when it comes to using Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors with integrated graphics. While the Sandy Bridge graphics performance was once faster when it came to OpenGL with the open-source Linux driver, that’s no longer the case.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS “Precise Pangolin” can boot faster… sometimes. If you are not lucky, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS can boot more than twice as slow as Ubuntu 10.04, the previous LTS release. Here are boot performance results of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS running on six distinct notebooks and comparing the Bootchart results upon clean installations of Ubuntu [...]

When it comes to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on older x86 PC hardware, it’s another step backwards. For hardware older than about a half-decade, Ubuntu 12.04 is becoming more sluggish to use, burning through greater power, and really not being worthwhile to pursue the upgrade. The Linux support for this older hardware has passed its prime.

One of the great advantages of Linux is it has great support for older systems and legacy hardware. This week, we take a look at how Ubuntu 12.04 ‘Precise Pangolin’ runs on an older system running older hardware. I found such a system in my very own office.

Microsoft Windows may be the de facto standard desktop operating system in business environments, but high costs, restrictive licences and constant security issues are leading an increasing number of companies to consider open source alternatives — as Kat Orphanides explains.

After delivering benchmarks last week that were comparing the Intel Sandy Bridge performance of Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” vs. Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” when it came to the Sandy Bridge OpenGL graphics performance, here’s a comparative look at the performance of Ubuntu 11.10 against Mac OS X 10.7.2 from the Intel Sandy Bridge-based Mac.

In this first proper round of AMD FX-8150 Linux testing, the performance of the octal-core Bulldozer is being compared to the remote results of the AMD FX-4100 system and then the other hardware that was used for comparison (namely Intel’s Sandy Bridge) and other test hardware at Phoronix

The AMD Radeon HD 6450 is the lowest-end offering in this family, but how’s its performance relative to other low-end AMD and NVIDIA parts? In this review we have a PowerColor Radeon HD 6450 1GB and are seeing how well this graphics card works under Ubuntu Linux.

Last week we delivered results looking at the power consumption of Ubuntu 11.04 versus Windows 7, which was interesting in its own right, but in this article is a brief look at where Apple’s Mac OS X operating system fits in between the power consumption of Ubuntu Linux and Microsoft Windows

Now that we have looked at the Ubuntu power consumption going back as far as Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (and found serious power regressions), the next round of testing is providing the Bootchart results for five different systems also going back as far as Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.

Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal” is set to be released on Thursday and while there are a number of new features to talk about in this latest release, the Phoronix Test Suite software has been busy analyzing the performance of this latest release.

The new Expert Reviews benchmarks, which can be downloaded for free, are designed to be run natively on Windows 7, Ubuntu 10.10 (a Linux distribution) and Mac OS X, so we decided to find out which operating system is the fastest.

Next week there are some very interesting Apple-related benchmarks to be published, but before the weekend here are a few tests from this Apple Mac Book Pro looking at its power consumption under Mac OS X 10.6.5 and Ubuntu 10.10.

With the arrival last month of Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition, it’s time to revisit a familiar question: which operating system is best for a netbook? Linux-based systems may seem well-suited to lightweight devices (the original Asus Eee PC ran Xandros Linux), but there are advantages to the familiar interface and applications of Windows.

With the arrival last month of Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition, it’s time to revisit a familiar question: which operating system is best for a netbook?

Today there are many such Linux-based distributions with new takes on the user interface geared towards small screens. In this article I am going to try and break down and analyse two of them by some of the biggest names in Linux; MeeGo from Intel and Nokia, and Ubuntu Netbook Edition (UNE) from Canonical.

While Wubi may lower the barrier for entry to trying out an Ubuntu Linux desktop, it does not come without some performance penalties associated to using the loop-mounted device stored on the Microsoft file-system.

Despite the bombastic predictions of open-source advocates, and a short-lived spell as the default netbook operating system, Linux remains at the very margins of mainstream computing. Even among PC Pro’s technically literate readership, only 4% are running a Linux OS, according to the visitor stats for this website.

Today, we are back to looking at the Linux vs. Windows performance of the Lenovo ThinkPad W510 and this time we are looking at the OpenGL gaming performance between Windows 7 Professional and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Using this Lenovo ThinkPad notebook, we compared the performance of Windows 7 Professional x64 to that of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (x86_64). On the Windows side there was the NVIDIA 258.96 WHQL driver while on the Linux side the testing was done with the latest 256.35 release. The stock Ubuntu Lucid packages besides NVIDIA’s proprietary driver [...]

There is still three months left until Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat” will be officially released along with the Ubuntu Netbook spin and the various other incarnations of this popular Linux distribution, but today we have some initial netbook tests of this next version of Ubuntu Linux

There is still three months left until Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat” will be officially released along with the Ubuntu Netbook spin and the various other incarnations of this popular Linux distribution, but today we have some initial netbook tests of this next version of Ubuntu Linux.

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is pinning its hopes of OEM acceptance on the Lucid Lynx. We’ve put the screws to this new Long Term Support (LTS) release, comparing it to Canonical’s previous LTS release, 8.04 Hardy Heron, to look for progress.

Often when we are preparing for cross-distribution comparisons or benchmarks of different operating systems (like our recent Mac OS X 10.6 vs. Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 10.04 benchmarks) we are often asked to include Arch Linux in the mix.

Regularly, you can read on mailing lists of users having grown discontented with one and deciding to migrate to the other. In many users’ minds, each is an alternative to the other. But how do the distributions really compare?

While occasionally we deliver new KVM virtualization benchmarks, we decided to investigate how the performance of KVM virtualization has changed — if at all — over the past two years for better or worse.

Yesterday we published our first benchmarks of Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 10.04 that provided an initial look at the OpenGL graphics performance between these two operating systems on six different systems. Today we are continuing to compare the two operating systems as we look at the power consumption of Ubuntu and Windows on a netbook [...]

While Linux has long been talked about as being a faster operating system than Microsoft Windows, in 2010 is this still the case?

Now we have our assortment of system benchmarks to publish from the Long-Term Support releases of Ubuntu 6.06.1, Ubuntu 8.04.4, and an Ubuntu 10.04 development snapshot. In this article, we are looking at how Ubuntu’s performance has evolved over the past four years.

While it may not be as exciting as looking at these new end-user features, in this article we are testing out the available kernels for Ubuntu 10.04. Besides the standard Linux 2.6.32 kernel used in the Lucid release, there is also a specialized server kernel as well as a new -preempt kernel is now available.