TechRepublic: Windows NT vs. Linux--Who'll win the rubber match?

[Second in a series on the recent Linux vs. Windows NT benchmark testing. - LT ed.]

"The controversy that surrounded the first Mindcraft test was the catalyst for conducting a second series of benchmark tests in June 1999. Under the administrative eye of PC Week Labs and with the full cooperation of Microsoft and Red Hat, Mindcraft conducted a second benchmark."

"PC Week Labs not only found that NT remains substantially faster but also isolated the Linux operating system's shortcomings and gained insight into where future development of the open source operating system should be headed. ...test found that IIS 4.0's performance was 126 percent better than Apache's, as opposed to the 400 percent difference Mindcraft originally found."

"Although all involved parties agreed that this series of tests was conducted fairly and impartially, the losing Linux camp still took issue with several factors. According to Doug Ledford, manager of IHV technical relations with Red Hat and one of the on-site participants in the revised Mindcraft study, 'The tests did not accurately represent how and what our customers are using Red Hat for.' He believes that Linux performs better in the 'real world' than the results of these tests indicate. Ledford insists that ServerBench, instead of WebBench, would have gauged performance in a more authentic, CPU-intensive environment."

"Using the passionate and motivated resources of the Linux community, the Linux kernel will be modified to correct the IP stack problem in a matter of weeks. Therefore, what was an issue in this round of tests will not be an issue in the next."

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Related Stories:

• TechRepublic: Windows NT vs. Linux - Both go the distance(Aug 23, 1999)