[ale] NT vs LINUX can it be true?

[Eric Z. Ayers]

an NT junkie at my office forwarded me this:

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	nt-list-admin at lyris.sunbelt-software.com
> [SMTP:nt-list-admin at lyris.sunbelt-software.com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, April 14, 1999 4:16 AM
> To:	Latest Win NT News
> Subject:	NTools ENewsFlash -- Report: NT 3.5x Faster Than Linux
> 
> *****************************************************
> NTools E-NewsFlash: Report: NT 3.5x Faster Than Linux
> *****************************************************
>                     April 14, 1999
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> As most of you know, when some important news hits the
> wires we will inform you immediately. This morning I
> found something in my in-box that will definitely throw
> some more gasoline on the raging 'NT vs Linux' fire.
> 
> I quickly read through the report and could not find
> anything wrong with it at first observation. The numbers
> seem to be correct, as they are using an industry standard
> benchmark that I have used myself as well, the ZD bench.
> 
> Oh, before I forget, Novell actually wrote a rebuttal 
> against that last report that SMS is better than ZEN.
> Interesting reading, and this gives the Novell POV:
> http://www.novell.com/products/nds/zenworks/ms2.html
> 
> But here comes today's bomb in the NT vs Linux battle.
> One wonders who pays for these tests but I will ask the
> CEO of MindCraft and report on that in the next coming
> newsletter. Here goes!
> 
> 
> 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).
> --------------------------------------