Why are Macs/Linux so slow to load apps?

[Megatomic]

Ok. I too have MS Office, but as I said I'm trying to migrate from Windows for everything to Windows for gaming and multimedia and linux for everything else. A nice office suite takes me closer to that goal. Now that Open Office loads quickly I'm satisfied for now.

 

[aswedc]

I'm sitting on a stock Mini right now. System Preferences opened in 2 seconds, iCal in 4, while playing MP3s in iTunes. What are you smoking?

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Ok. I too have MS Office, but as I said I'm trying to migrate from Windows for everything to Windows for gaming and multimedia and linux for everything else. A nice office suite takes me closer to that goal. Now that Open Office loads quickly I'm satisfied for now.

Now have fun once you find that stuff you save in a .DOC format that you want to turn in for an assignment doesn't open right on MSO

Then again whenver MSO can't open a file telling me its corrupted, I just use OO and it opens it just fine

 

[Nothinman]

OpenOffice is huge, I avoid it as much as possible since it's so slow. Depending on what you need Abiword, Gnumeric, KOffice, etc might be better.

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser

Originally posted by: Stan
Not to start a flamewar, but why are Macintosh computers, as well as Linux so slow to open programs compared to Windows?

Example: iCal on a mac mini takes 12 seconds to load. System preferences takes like 20. etc.

It just seems like apps load so much faster in Windows. I have Windows and Linux installed on my laptop and Firefox and Thunderbird seem to load ~5 seconds quicker in Windows.

Its not just one or two apps. It seems like everything is kinda laggy on a Mac, or in Linux. After switching back to Windows it seems snappy.

The Mac Mini has a slow hard drive (4200 rpms) as well as being memory starved (256 or 512MB RAM). You can increase the Mini's performance by replacing the drive with a faster internal unit or by using a USB or Firewire external hard drive. Would that make it as fast as Windows? Hard to say, but a worthy upgrade none-the-less.

As for Windows/Linux, Windows' registry does make things much speedier and Linux doesn't have an equivalent (and likely never will). Gnome has a similar registry, but since it doesn't control the entire OS like Windows' does, it only has so much of an impact. KDE also preloads some apps for a speed boost, but usually only apps that are part of the desktop suite (eg, konqueror, but not firefox).

Most of the apps in Linux store their configs in text files located in various directories (/home, /etc, etc). Accessing various text files scattered about the filesystem takes time and depends greatly on the seek speed of the hard drive. That is why the speed crown goes to Windows (but usually only for initially starting the apps).

While the Windows Registry does make for speedier startups, it gets bloated over time (and slows down), and it can get corrupted enough to totally wreck the OS.


EDIT>> Added link

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[hopejr]

Hey Philippine Mango, long time no see!

I got a new iMac G5 today. Man it's fast.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

hmmmmmm ... i have a 1GHZ iBook w/ 512mb of ram and ical loads up pretty quickly. I cant say the same about firefox, but camino is super fast. Now, with iTunes, it runs much smoother than on my PC.

 

[Dennis Travis]

Something is wrong on that Dual CPU Mac. My Single 1.25Ghz Mini loads system preferences in 1-2 seconds, ICal in 3-4. Most apps take one bounce of the icon then appear. Even my G4 500Mhz is no where near that slow. Which OSX version you running? Panther here on the 500Mhz and Tiger on the Mini.

 

[hopejr]

Originally posted by: lilcam
hmmmmmm ... i have a 1GHZ iBook w/ 512mb of ram and ical loads up pretty quickly. I cant say the same about firefox, but camino is super fast. Now, with iTunes, it runs much smoother than on my PC.

Same.

My iMac G5 is really fast. Only a single 1.8GHz G5 with 600MHz FSB, but it's only one bounce for most apps except maybe dreamweaver (even photoshop has one bounce). That sinlge bounce is a compulsory bounce too.

 

[imported_Lucifer]

Originally posted by: hopejr
Hey Philippine Mango, long time no see!

I got a new iMac G5 today. Man it's fast.

Hey hope! Hope you are enjoying that iMac G5! My friend has had hers for a couple of months, but sadly, she is experiencing some serious problems with it. It is extremely slow. Its probably bad hardware, as we did install a fresh install of Tiger, and that didnt help. She is so angry she is taking it off her credit card and getting a PC, unless they fix her iMac.

I did get a Mac Mini a few weeks ago, and it was very very fast. But I actually sold it about 3 days ago. lol And it did open apps in just one bounce. It is way fast compared to my 400mhz G4.

 

[bjc112]

My Mac Mini with 1GB of ram opens it within 2 seconds..

I have damn near everything running..

Safari x 3 ; ichat ; Mail ; Activity monitor ; itunes; ical ;previewer; and about 15 widgets..

System is very snappy..

My boot time was increased quite a bit with Tiger..

Maybe 45 seconds to 1 min..

My Windows machine does boot extremely quick though, however i can live with the extra 30 seconds..

 

[hopejr]

Originally posted by: Thin Lizzy

Originally posted by: hopejr
Hey Philippine Mango, long time no see!

I got a new iMac G5 today. Man it's fast.

Hey hope! Hope you are enjoying that iMac G5! My friend has had hers for a couple of months, but sadly, she is experiencing some serious problems with it. It is extremely slow. Its probably bad hardware, as we did install a fresh install of Tiger, and that didnt help. She is so angry she is taking it off her credit card and getting a PC, unless they fix her iMac.

I did get a Mac Mini a few weeks ago, and it was very very fast. But I actually sold it about 3 days ago. lol And it did open apps in just one bounce. It is way fast compared to my 400mhz G4.

Yeah, I'm enjoying it. Pity about your friend's iMac. Has she done an Apple Hardware Test on it to see what's wrong? That's always the first thing I do to make sure it's ok before I do anything else with it. I've never had a problem with either of my macs, so I'm happy.

 

[imported_Lucifer]

Originally posted by: hopejr

Originally posted by: Thin Lizzy

Originally posted by: hopejr
Hey Philippine Mango, long time no see!

I got a new iMac G5 today. Man it's fast.

Hey hope! Hope you are enjoying that iMac G5! My friend has had hers for a couple of months, but sadly, she is experiencing some serious problems with it. It is extremely slow. Its probably bad hardware, as we did install a fresh install of Tiger, and that didnt help. She is so angry she is taking it off her credit card and getting a PC, unless they fix her iMac.

I did get a Mac Mini a few weeks ago, and it was very very fast. But I actually sold it about 3 days ago. lol And it did open apps in just one bounce. It is way fast compared to my 400mhz G4.

Yeah, I'm enjoying it. Pity about your friend's iMac. Has she done an Apple Hardware Test on it to see what's wrong? That's always the first thing I do to make sure it's ok before I do anything else with it. I've never had a problem with either of my macs, so I'm happy.

She says she ran it, but found no problem. I think she really needs to get it warrantied. I have never had any problems with any of my Macs, not even with the old Powermac 9600 I used to own.