1.2 Investigation introduction
In this essay, the two operating systems will be tested in the areas of: startup and shutdown speed, CD burning speed, Internet Browsers (Safari vs. Internet Explorer) and printing speed.
Figure 1: Table of systems used and their specifications
The computer systems used in this investigation were connected to the same network under the same conditions. Figure 1 shows the systems that are used in this investigation and their specifications.
As it can be seen in the table, the Front Side Bus (FSB), which is the bus that connects the CPU to other hardwares , is double in XP. Plus, the RAM is double and the Intel chip in XP is the successor to that in the Mac.
Having a higher figure in the FSB and RAM means that the data can be transmitted faster to the components.
Chapter 2: Startup and shutdown speeds
2.1: General information
2.1.1: Startup/Boot-up
The startup option in a computer system is the process where the system is turned on and numerous processes take place before the system is ready for the user to use. In a computer system, the processes that take place during startup or boot-up are essential for a healthy computer.
In Windows XP, the first steps of boot up are initialized by the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). The BIOS enables and controls the communication between the hardware and the operating system. After the BIOS, OSLoader phase takes place where ‘Winlogon.exe’ (loading screen) is loaded which further creates instructions to load ‘Explorer.exe’ (desktop).
On the Mac Tiger, there are not many differences in the processes. As soon as the power button on the Mac is pushed, a process called the BootROM firmware is activated. BootROM has two key responsibilities, firstly it initializes system hardware and then it selects an operating system to run, in this case the Tiger. After BootROM, ‘boot.efi’ is loaded which loads the operating system. This can be seen as the ‘booting’ screen.
The number of overall processes during startup in the Mac are much less compared to Windows XP. Hence, it can be predicted that this would have an effect on the speed of the respective operating systems accordingly.
2.1.2: Shutdown
The shutdown process in a computer system is commonly defined for all, regardless of the operating system. This process initiates commands to close down background applications and then disconnect from power source after saving the settings.
After the user initiates the shutdown, the processes in Windows XP make sure that all applications and services running in the background have stopped. After the settings that were made by the user are saved, the devices and drivers are disconnected and finally, the power source is disconnected. In the Mac, similar processes take place, but in much simpler manner. After the user hits the ‘Shutdown’ button, a ‘quit application’ command is sent to all running applications, which further save settings and finally disconnect power source.
Like the startup processes, the number of overall processes during shutdown in the Mac are much less compared to Windows XP. Hence, it can be predicted that this would have an effect on the speed of the respective operating systems accordingly.
2.2: The startup and shutdown tests
2.2.1: Startup test
To start off, both the computers were put into test for the startup speed. To record the time, a stopwatch was started as soon as the power button was switched on and stopped when the login window was spotted. To eliminate errors and/or flaws, the test was taken three times each and then an average was calculated.
Figure 2: The test results for the startup test
Figure 2 clearly shows that the Mac Tiger is 12 seconds faster than XP. Apple’s first Intel based operating system takes a lead by 57% when it comes to startup speed.
Windows XP took an average 33 seconds for the process and the Tiger took 21 seconds for the same. On the Tiger, this process takes more time than XP as the Tiger doesn’t have to prepare to load the registries of the application to be run on the icon tray after login. The Tiger smoothly loads and sets up the user preferences and settings instead of multiple user-edited registries.
2.2.2: Shutdown test
For the shutdown test, both the operating systems were put to test with no running/open applications. This makes it easier and fair for both operating systems as both will have to deal with minimum instructions to stop running applications. The time was recorded as soon as the shutdown button was clicked and stopped when the computers were completely shut down.
Figure 3 clearly illustrates the fact that Mac Tiger again took a lead, this time by 33%.
For the Mac Tiger, it took 18 seconds for the process whereas XP took 24 seconds for the screen to completely fade away. Most of the time that XP takes is to save files and changes that are made by the user. One problem with Windows XP is that it uses a lot of CPU, disk, and network even when system is idle. Hence, time is consumed to end connections between the operating system and the hardware.
Hence, this section can be concluded by safely putting forward the statement that the Mac Tiger is a lot faster than its competent when it comes to startup and shutdown.
2.3: What can the users conclude from the results?
Time plays a critical part in the everyday processes and operations of the business world. All financial and other business transactions, communications, and business records are ultimately time based and time dependent. Even a few seconds can play a vital role in today’s growing business empires or small firms. In such a fast running world, which furthermore is massively influenced by technology, time is directly proportional to money. This global society needs a promising technological advancement that saves their time, whether it may be about a minute every day.
The Mac Tiger, booting up in 21 seconds and shutting down in 18, is the operating system that would bring in speed and prevent waste in time. Even though, the system had an FSB of 400MHz, which is less than average in today’s technologically advanced world, the operating system performed exceptionally well. Front Side Bus (FSB) is the bus that connects the CPU to other hardware, including the BIOS. Having a higher figure means that the data can be transmitted faster to the components.
In today’s world, majority of the businesses have the tendency to afford computers with higher FSB. Even though Windows XP had twice the FSB than the Tiger, it can be observed that a system with 800MHz of FSB with the Mac Tiger is just like a timesaving machine. Having a higher FSB not only increases a system’s capability to boot up and shut down quickly, but also boosts efficiency.
Hence, for the growing number of ‘new users’, whether business executives or students with tight schedules, even a Macintosh Tiger with an average FSB came be a timesaving handy tool.
Chapter 3: CD Burning speed
3.1: General Information
Compact Discs have held them strong in this technological world for years, whether they are used to hold media, data or software, they have become the standard medium for distributing large quantities of information in a reliable package, as they range from 600MB to 9.6GB. As CD burners have become standard over the past few years, the ability for the user to easily save files to CD has become increasingly necessary.
In the past few years, the Compact Disc has completely pushed the Floppy Disk to the list of the endangered species. A common CD has the capacity to hold 700MB or more of data, which is equivalent to over 400 floppy disks.
Both operating systems include built-in support for burning data to CD-Rs/DVD-Rs (recordable or "write once" compact discs) as well as CD-RWs/DVD-RWs (erase and rewrite). The two operating systems can burn the cross-platform compatible ISO-9660 format, though only Mac Tiger writes to that format by default. The ISO-9660 is a format officially published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for operating systems to exchange data with CDs without any translation or conversion. Windows XP has an additional feature that supports HighMAT format. HighMAT allows the CD burning hardware to read lists of images and music content from the media faster, as well as providing a more convenient navigation system. This feature helps CD/DVD players to read hundreds of music or photo files in a much faster way, eliminating browsing experience for users to be slow and tedious.
The CD is made up of translucent layers, when laser passes through this layer; it creates dark points on the CD, which are digital pattern that a CD player can read. At first, when the files are dragged into the CD Drive, they are actually copied into a temporary folder on the local drive. As soon as the ‘Burn CD’ button is clicked, these files are created into a separate image file (ISO). This doesn’t happen in the Mac, the files are directly read from the source path and then written on the disc.
3.2: CD Burning Test
Figure 4: Table shows the variables used and the ones kept constant
min:sec
Figure 5: Charts show the test results for CD Burning speed
The stopwatch was started as soon as the ‘Burn’ button was clicked and then stopped when the message box saying ‘Completed!’ popped up. Figure 5 shows the results for the test, the XP took a small but apparent lead by burning the files in 7 minutes 29 seconds whereas the Tiger took 8 minutes 37 seconds. The reason for this could be that the files that were being were media files (MP3); hence, the HighMAT support was extremely useful as it ran through the media and rapidly sorted them out which eases the job of the burning application as it can easily read the files from its source path. The result makes it apparent that the XP takes an enormous lead when it comes to disc burning compared to Tiger.
3.3: What can the users conclude from the results?
In today’s world, transferring data, whether it is Green Day’s new music album or a folder of summer pictures, CDs are the most convenient and comfortable medium.
The results help in making the fair statement that XP can be favorable for users in businesses involving media, for example photo shoot firms.
Chapter 4: Printing Speed
4.1: General Information
Since the first printer was introduced, they have helped us to bring our documents, pictures and web pages from the computer into the real world. Unsurprisingly, having a printer at home or at work is a usual scene, as printers have become the most popular of all computer peripherals. To choose the type of printer (laser or inkjet) depends on the use. If the printing purpose is for home use, a fairly cheap inkjet printer would be the choice. However, if a business needs bulk prints, a laser printer is the bright choice.
Both types of printers work in different ways. In the inkjet, the cartridges move over the pages line by line, pressing on the pages using heat or pressure. Laser printers use a cylindrical drum that has charged image of light. This drum smoothly rolls over the pages creating a clean image.
Even after the big boom in technology over the last three decades, paperwork is still important in today’s world. Just in the United States, over 600 million pages of paper are printed as computer printouts per day. Even after that, users all over the world demand more. Therefore, printing needs to be a fast process for today’s timesaving world.
4.2: The printing test
Figure 6: The test results for the printing speed
Both the computers were connected to the same network at conditions of low network usage. A PDF document of five pages was opened from the desktop of both computers with Adobe Reader and sent to printing to the same laser printer on the network; timed as soon as the ‘Print’ button was hit and stopped immediately after the paper was printed. Even though the test was performed under conditions of low network usage, three trials were taken for each operating system.
The average for both the Tiger and XP was the same, timed to be at 12 seconds (can be seen in Figure 6). This clearly proves that both operating systems perform equally well when it comes to printing documents. This is because both operating systems send the data/file to the printer at the same rate.
4.3: What can the users conclude from the results?
As stated before, having a fast and efficient way to print documents is what today users desire before purchasing a printer. If a company wants to print high-quality images, produce documents in large quantities or print large sheets of paper, a fast and efficient laser printer is necessary.
The results become the evidence for the fact that both operating systems perform equally well when it comes to printing speed. This is an extremely important factor as after choosing a printer, most users would be in confusion about the operating system, if printing speed is an important criterion for them.
This can lead to a conclusion that operating systems do not affect the printing speed, but it is actually the printer that has an effect on it. Hence, users; may they be businesses looking for bulk prints in high quality, or a family, looking forward to print letter and few photos, should not be affected by the choice of an operating system and should rather focus only on the printer.
Chapter 5: Internet Explorer vs. Safari
5.1: General Information
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. A computer that connects to the Internet can access information from a vast number of servers and other computers.
It can be fair to say that majority of the users all over the world by their computer systems to get on the internet. From chatting online, downloading music, watching TV to reading news, making business transactions or talking on the phone, the internet has completely revolutionized the global society. High-speed internet connections have made this all possible for all kinds of users around the world.
But still, there are users that desire more, as it is the basic nature of any human. There have been ways to ‘tweak’ the web browsers such that the page loading speed increases. As a result, both companies have been trying to make their web-browser better and faster.
Apart from the two operating systems, their web-browsers have another age-old battle. Even though Apple’s Safari has had only four major versions compared to Windows’ Internet Explorer that has eight, both browsers can be put to test.
5.1: Internet Explorer 7 vs. Safari 2
This next test will compare the two respective internet browsers; Safari 2 for the Mac and Internet Explorer 6 for XP. The first area that will be looked upon will be the download speed, which is one of the most important feature to any user. A common 1 MB PDF document from a common webpage will be downloaded and this process will be timed. As the download speed varies according to network usage and the server of the website, the test will be performed three times over three consecutive days.
Figure 7: Test results for download speed
The Safari took only 1 minute 50 seconds to download a 1 MB PDF document whereas Internet Explorer took 2 minutes 11 seconds for the download bar to complete
(Figure 7), a difference of 19%. The designers of Safari programmed it in such a manner that it uses majority of the bandwidth during downloads, whereas Internet Explorer only uses a certain percentage by default. One more bonus side of Safari is that it can be manually configured by users, in other words, it is ‘tweakable’.
Figure 8: Test results for page opening speed
The next test is the page opening speed test. To make the test fair for both operating systems, the test was performed under conditions of low internet and network usage with the same bandwidth. One of the most ‘heavy’ websites on the internet is wizards.com. Hence, this site will be used for the test; both sites will initially be on google.com and then loaded to wizards.com. There is an incredible difference in the loading speed between the two browsers. Internet Explorer took 20 seconds to load the webpage whereas Safari took only 10 seconds (Figure 8), a two-fold difference. This is because Safari allows much more connections-per-server, by default, than Internet Explorer.
By looking at the remarkable differences in the results, it can be clearly seen that the Safari 2 is much faster than its opponent, Internet Explorer 6. There is no doubt that users should click the download button for Safari on the Apple site than on Microsoft’s to download Internet Explorer. Even for XP users, one should not doubt the power and capability of Safari.
6.3: Which browser should users have?
Most users, typically XP users, tend to stay attached with the web browser that was provided with the operating system, since it does not matter to them. Most users probably don’t know that there are better web-browsers on the internet, that are much faster and efficient.
Without a doubt, it can be said that Safari is much faster than Internet Explorer. As speed is the most important aspect of a web-browser, any user would want Safari opening up their web pages and downloading files rather than Internet Explorer. As well as personally impressed by its user-interface, I would recommend users to have Safari as their default well browser.
Chapter 7: Recommendations
7.1: Windows XP
Even though the operating system that holds the majority share in the market, it has its strengths and weaknesses. With some careful and insightful research, users can buy systems exactly according to their needs, moreover within their budgets. Today, there are numerous online retailers who sell custom-made systems, a bright and beneficial way for users to meet their needs.
For users who require XP for everyday computing, which includes regular use of the internet, some multitasking, and occasional printing, a system with the following configurations should be able to meet their needs: 1-1.5GB RAM, 600-800MHz FSB, CD and DVD writer, desirable hard drive and Intel Core Duo processor. The RAM will provide multitasking with ease and FSB will bring time saving startups and shutdowns. The Intel Core Duo chip would become the backbone to ease and efficiency in the system. Some might consider downloading the Safari.
For users who would require ‘heavy’ use of the system, from regular everyday printing to excessive multitasking with heavy applications, a system with the following configurations should satisfy the users’ needs: 1-2.5GB RAM, 800-1066MHz FSB, DVD Re/Writer, desirable hard drive and Intel Core 2 Duo chip. Heavy applications can be used with such RAM and FSB. And the Intel chip along with the FSB will boot up a computer within a few seconds.
7.2: Macintosh OS X Tiger
Apple doesn’t let users to configure its systems, users have to buy as made. However, it must be considered that most of Apple’s systems are already configured to meet all needs of all users.
Buying an iMac with 1-3GB RAM, 800MHz FSB and an Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processor wouldn’t give any user a chance to complain. Whether a graphic designer wants to use heavy designing applications or a student who requires daily internet use along with text processing softwares, a MacBook or an iMac wouldn’t let users down.
Conclusion
Since the first computers were introduced, the battle of the operating systems has never stopped. If someone asks the question, ‘Which operating system is better?’ it is normal to get varied answers. It is fair to say that the differences between these two operating systems don't lie within in the quantity of features each possesses, but more on a users’ desire, which furthermore vary accordingly. Both operating systems performed remarkably under the tests.
After looking at the test results, it is clear that Windows XP performs faster when it comes to processes like CD burning, which is one extremely vital feature that today’s media-influenced world desires. On the other hand, Mac Tiger is no less than Windows XP when it comes to RAM usage and most of all; internet usage takes a huge lead in the race. Based on the results, the Safari 2 performs almost 2 times faster than Internet Explorer. This test is probably the most important as huge majority of users around the world use internet daily. Both the operating systems perform equally well when RAM usage is considered, even though, being the tester, I believe that the Tiger’s applications were more efficient and easily accessible compared to Windows XP.
Even though Microsoft’s Windows XP takes the majority of the market share, users all over the world should not doubt the power, proficiency and potential of Apple’s Mac Tiger.
There is no doubt that both the operating systems perform significantly well according to their design. Without being biased, and looking at the overall performances of the two operating systems, I myself would recommend the Macintosh Tiger to the general users i.e. users that use the computer system for every day computing because of its ease-in-use and faster features.
In conclusion, it is apparent that both operating systems have their own strengths and weaknesses, but in the end, it is always left to the users to decide according to their needs and requirements.
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