Is Linux really faster than MS Windows ?

[Michael A. Peters]

On 03/05/2005 12:12:56 PM, Rob Miracle wrote:

> 
> On MY LAPTOP, I can watch it pump the wireless card AFTER login.  I  
> watch it use DHCP to get its address.  That card is not live until  
> after boot.  On my linux box, it DHCP's before the login.   If your  
> wired and sharing resources, sure, that happens before the login  
> prompt.  But I never said that.  I also said it doesn't attempt to  
> mount network drives until after login.  It can't.  Windows  
> networking requires knowing who you are because you have to login  
> into the remote host.  It can't do that until it knows who you are.    
> Windows can make its shared resources avaialble before login because  
> it doesn't matter who is going to logon but it will not attempt to  
> map your network drives until you login.
> 
> Completly wrong?

That was my experience with PPPoE because it required user  
authentication. I could find no way to get it to dial the PPPoE before  
I logged in. After a lot of searching, I did find a script that would  
do that - dial your PPPoE and authenticate as a system service - but  
the guy wanted money for it. I wish I knew more about Windows services  
because I didn't want to pay for what (at least should be) is something  
trivial (I assume it's just a batch file or something) - but I rarely  
use Windows, so I have no motive to learn how to do that stuff.

With respect to Windows being rock solid - it is, XP has never crashed  
on me that wasn't a hardware failure that would have taken down any OS  
(well, any OS on hardware without redundancy) - though unfortunately I  
bought XP Home figuring I didn't need the server crap, but apparently  
XP Pro makes life a lot easier - like taking ownership and stuff like  
that.

Also - Linux doesn't have a heart attack if you change the motherboard  
chipset completely. Kudzu just adapts - and often succesfully migrates  
network settings etc. (though, and no fault of kudzu here, it doesn't  
get the interfaces in the order you want them - so when I swap a mobo  
in Linux, I let kudzu do its thing and THEN attach the network cables)

Linux really is just far more advanced than Windows with stuff like  
that. Admittedly, though - that is a geek thing to do (replace a  
motherboard), most consumers just buy a new PC when old board (or cpu)  
dies. Or pay to have it swapped out.

-- 
Michael A. Peters
http://mpeters.us/