[LUNI] Bunk???

[Kara Pritchard <kara@lanscape.net>]

LOS GATOS, Calif., April 13. Today, Mindcraft released the results
of a study comparing the performance of Red Hat Linux 5.2 (updated
to the Linux 2.2.2 kernel) and Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
operating systems. According to the report, Windows NT Server
provides over three and a half times the performance of Linux as a
Web server.  Furthermore, the report shows that when testing Windows
NT Server and Linux as file servers, Windows NT Server provides over
two and a half times the performance of Linux.  The full report,
including all of the details needed to reproduce the tests, is on
Mindcraft's Web site at:

http://www.mindcraft.com/whitepapers/nts4rhlinux.html.

Using benchmarks from Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation (ZDBOp), the
report compares the peak performance levels of both Windows NT
Server and Linux configured both as a file server and a Web server.

All tests were performed on a standard Dell PowerEdge 6300/400 server
with four 400-MHz Xeon CPUs, 1GB RAM (960MB for Linux -- this is the
default maximum amount of RAM that Linux supports).  To simulate a
client load, Mindcraft used 144 physical client test systems; half
were running Windows 95 and the other half were running Windows 98.

Both Linux and Windows NT Server were tuned to perform optimally under
each of the two workloads.  "We started the tests using standard Red Hat
Linux 5.2 but had to update it because it does not support hardware RAID
controllers and SMP at the same time," said Mindcraft's president, Bruce
Weiner.  "Linux definitely takes more time and resources to tune and to
configure than Windows NT Server.  You have to search the Net to find
the
latest kernel and driver versions to get the highest performance and
most
reliable modules. Then when you're done, Linux fails to deliver the same
level of performance as Windows NT Server on enterprise-class servers."

Mindcraft's report shows that using ZDBOp's WebBench 2.0 Web server
benchmark, Windows NT Server and Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0
reach a peak of 3,771 requests/second and 22.4 Megabits/second(Mbps) of
throughput. The report goes on to show that Linux and the Apache 1.3.4
Web server reach a peak of 1,000 request/second and 5.9 Mbps of
throughput.  The WebBench 2.0 tests also revealed that there are
problems
with Linux/Apache at high client loads. "The Linux/Apache Web server
performance collapsed with a WebBench load above 160 client test
threads,
while Windows NT Server/IIS continued to increase performance up through
288 client test threads without reaching their peak performance," adds
Mindcraft's Bruce Weiner.

To simulate a file server workload, Mindcraft used ZDBOp's NetBench
5.01 benchmark.  The testing revealed that Windows NT Server performance
peaked at 286.7 Mbps with 112 clients, while Linux running Samba 2.0.1
peaked at 114.6 Mbps with only 48 clients.  "The integration of the SMB
file sharing protocol with the multi-processor kernel is a key
performance
win for Windows NT Server," said Weiner. "Customers benefit every day
from
the superior scalability of Windows NT Server, which delivers vital file
and web services at two to three times the performance of Linux as shown
in these benchmarks," said Edmund Muth, Group Product Manager, Microsoft
Corporation. "Empirical data like this helps customers and planners make
informed decisions, and showcases the industrial strength technology and
mature engineering of the Windows NT Server operating system."

About Mindcraft

Mindcraft is a service-oriented, independent test lab. The company was
founded in 1985 to provide high quality services and products to vendors
and end users who want to test software, system, and network products.
Mindcraft is committed to work to promote standards in our industry.
Mindcraft is the only test lab to be a member of the Standard
Performance
Evaluation Corporation (SPEC).


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