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    Why is Windows so slow?

    (games.greggman.com)
    337 points kristianp | 15 comments | | HN request time: 1.044s | source | bottom
    1. etfb ◴[] No.3368812[source]
    Someone posted the question on StackOverflow and it got closed as "not constructive". Is there a way to browse the "not constructive" questions on SO? They seem to be all the best ones.
    replies(5): >>3368826 #>>3368833 #>>3368834 #>>3368904 #>>3368948 #
    2. Mithrandir ◴[] No.3368826[source]
    Ref: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6916011/how-do-i-get-wind... (By the author)

    Top Answer:

    Unless a hardcore windows systems hacker comes along, you're not going to get more than partisan comments (which I won't do) and speculation (which is what I'm going to try).

    1. File system - You should try the same operations (including the dir) on the same filesystem. I came across this which benchmarks a few filesystems for various parameters.

    2. Caching. I one tried to run a compilation on Linux on a ramdisk and found that it was slower than running it on disk thanks to the way the kernel takes care of caching. This is a solid selling point for Linux and might be the reason why the performance is so different.

    3. Bad dependency specifications on windows. Maybe the chromium dependency specifications for Windows are not as correct as for Linux. This might result in unnecessary compilations when you make a small change. You might be able to validate this using the same compiler toolchain on Windows.

    replies(1): >>3368871 #
    3. bitops ◴[] No.3368833[source]
    Well, this article seems to be asking "why is the Windows file system so slow?" and generally complaining. A better name for the article might be "Windows FS performance sucks" or similarly polemical title.

    There are parts of Windows that are implemented just the same as Linux, and parts that are faster. Some parts are slower, notably the file system. But there's more to Windows than just the file system.

    So, I'd say that's why it's not constructive.

    replies(1): >>3368905 #
    4. thirsteh ◴[] No.3368834[source]
    Interesting. I wonder how many "Linux-bashing threads" (that contained valid questions which made perfect sense) were closed as not constructive.
    replies(1): >>3369097 #
    5. buster ◴[] No.3368871[source]
    Why should he run the ls command on ntfs rather then a native file system? In all it was a "windows vs linux" test and not a fileystem test. Testing the same filesystem wouldn't make sense here
    replies(1): >>3368885 #
    6. jharsman ◴[] No.3368885{3}[source]
    Presumably to find out whether the difference lies with the filesystem or somewhere else?

    If Linux is still much faster, even with the same filesystem, you have eliminated one variable.

    replies(2): >>3368958 #>>3369207 #
    7. 6ren ◴[] No.3368904[source]
    http://data.stackexchange.com/

    It's an online SQL tool for analyzing the stackoverflow data dump (last update was Sept 2011; they're quarterly http://blog.stackoverflow.com/category/cc-wiki-dump/). It's very cool, but curiously hard to find. There's a "[data-explorer]" tag at meta.stackoverflow: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/data-explorer

    The PostHistory table probably records why posts were closed.

    replies(1): >>3372571 #
    8. alextingle ◴[] No.3368905[source]
    Well that's the question isn't it? Is it just the filesystem, or is the speed of CL.EXE an issue too? What about the VS build system?

    It sounds like you simply don't know enough about the issue to judge whether it's constructive.

    9. manojlds ◴[] No.3368948[source]
    closed questions are still there. Only the deleted ones are gone ( but accessible to those with more than 10k reputation)
    10. buster ◴[] No.3368958{4}[source]
    Doing some profiling and system/kernel level analysis would be much saner, imo. What's the sense in measuring how some non-native filesystem behaves? In the end you'll be benchmarking how good is fuse-ntfs vs. in-kernel-ext4 and figuring it's slower... I say, profile some code and see how much time is spent in filesystem calls.
    11. darklajid ◴[] No.3369097[source]
    No need to invent a new conspiracy - closing and reopening happens regularly and for a lot of reasons/subjects.

    Just - add a vote to reopen it, if you feel that the question is relevant. I just did.

    replies(1): >>3371328 #
    12. rbanffy ◴[] No.3369207{4}[source]
    But then you'd be comparing NTFS implementations. The codebases are completely diffrent.
    13. smackfu ◴[] No.3371328{3}[source]
    Plus stackexchange has so many different subsites, the odds are any given question is off topic for where it was posted nowadays.
    14. 6ren ◴[] No.3372571[source]
    And here's your answer: top closed SO questions! http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/s/2305/top-close... (link includes hyperlinks to all the questions)

      score id post
      1416 1711 What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?
      1409 9033 Hidden Features of C#?
      1181 101268 Hidden features of Python
      979 1995113 Strangest language feature
      736 500607 What are the lesser known but cool data structures?
      708 6163683 Cycles in family tree software
      671 315911 Git for beginners: The definitive practical guide
      653 662956 Most useful free .NET libraries?
      597 891643 Twitter image encoding challenge
      583 83073 Why not use tables for layout in HTML?
      579 2349378 New programming jargon you coined?
      549 621884 Database development mistakes made by application developers
      537 1218390 What is your most productive shortcut with Vim?
      532 309300 What makes PHP a good language?
      505 1133581 Is 23,148,855,308,184,500 a magic number, or sheer chance?
      488 114342 What are Code Smells? What is the best way to correct them?
      481 432922 Significant new inventions in computing since 1980
      479 3550556 I've found my software as cracked download on Internet, what to do?
      479 380819 Common programming mistakes for .NET developers to avoid?
      473 182630 jQuery Tips and Tricks
    
    The query (also at http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/s/2305/top-close... ) - have a play.

      SELECT top 20
        p.score, p.id, p.id as [Post Link]
      FROM Posthistory h
        INNER JOIN PosthistoryTypes t ON h.posthistorytypeid = t.id
        INNER JOIN Posts p ON h.postid = p.id
      WHERE
        t.name = 'Post Closed'
      GROUP BY p.score, p.id
      ORDER BY p.score DESC
    replies(1): >>3407242 #
    15. etfb ◴[] No.3407242{3}[source]
    That's excellent. Thank you! As they say on Reddit, have an upboat! (Do they still say that on Reddit? No? Oh, never mind then.)