How fast is MacOS X?

[mingc]

A while back I installed a BeOS preview version, and I was amazed at how fast it was. Everything was extremely responsive and seemed to happen instantly. (even on my years old Performa 6360). I was wondering how fast MacOS X client would be compared to BeOS.

[mactropolis]

I sure hope so

[spinkb]

One note about the BeOS (I ran it too) is that it had almost nothing in it. There were very few included technologies etc...so it of course ran very very fast. That is one of the main reasons Apple didn't buy Be. NeXt already had a very complete OS. MacOS X Server feels sluggish from the users perspective of using the GUI, but it is very fast for anythign thats actually going on on it. Hence the name Server. Mac OS X Client (dr2 just came out) is extremely fast. Boot time to get to the login screen was under 30 seconds from when you first see the happy mac. After login, its under 15 seconds to get in and be running stuff. Now theres a lot of stuff thats happenning in this time, but it feels very very fast. GUI responsiveness is great. Even using the partially seamless integraded bluebox feels fast. Launching apps seems the same speed etc. Performance is very good. I don't notice a speed slow down from Mac OS 9 to the bluebox in OS X. There are of course glitches and things that are still present...not graphical, but just on how some stuff works. Its only DR2, so its well above what you would expect. If OS X dr2 was a Microsoft product, it would have been released months ago.


Expect OS X to be faster on a G3 then your OS 9 was. I am unable to test any game performances yet...due to incompatibilities etc...but I am confident things will be better with all the other improved technologies behind the scenes driving things.

[Pais]

The BeOS feels fast for a few main reasons.

First, it uses full pre-emptive multitasking, which means that it is able to execute many programs simultaneously. The Mac OS has yet to feature true multitasking abilities (it's coming in Mac OS X).

Secondly, Be developed the BeOS from scratch. They started with a clean slate of code, whereas Apple is forced to build upon previous versions of the OS (for compatibility reasons). The reason that Mac OS X is so much more enhanced is because Apple basically started over from the ground up (with a BSD UNIX code base).

Finally, BeOS does only one thing well: It feels fast. Be went out of their way to make sure that every little thing was done to give the illusion of extra speed. For example, they made large portions of code dynamically linked so that it was not loaded upon startup, but when it was needed. Thus, where time is saved in one place, it is used in another.

[macopz]

spinkb:"I don't notice a speed slow down from Mac OS 9 to the bluebox in OS X"

Well, if you wander on over to macosrumors.com, you will find that there IS a slow down, but it is SO slight that it is nearly unnoticable, and this is very encouraging, because there is still much acceleration to be done with OSX before it is ready for release.


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;-) MacOpz

[Mark J Hershenson]

Well, I feel a slow down under Blue Box, mainly to MacOS X Server swapping so very much while the BlueBox is working it's magic.

There will be better performance for Blue under MacOS X, but I urge you all to remember that MacOSRumors.com is a rumors site, and you should not base your future purchases on the information featured on it.

To toot my own horn, you should instead check out sites such as <A HREF="http://xclave.macnn.com/"> The MacOS Xclave</A> for information regarding all this new technology. It is hard to cut through the rhetoric to get at the underlying truthful information and I know that it's really tough. Unless absolutely necessary (read it's never absolutely necessary), it just doesn't go on the site. Same goes for many other respected sites, such as Scott Anguish's <A HREF="http://www.stepwise.com">StepWise</A>.

And as has has been pointed out before by many others, mosr.com really is a pirate of the worst kind. They derive their information from NDA protected software, and then fly the proud Apple pirate flag, when they are only really stealing. Keep that in mind when you quote them, too.

[This message has been edited by Mark J Hershenson (edited 11-29-1999).]

[fleshhorn]

My experience with OS X client dp2 on a 400 Mhz G3 has been outstanding. Programs load faster than LinuxPPC v5, it boots faster than anything I have ever seen. 15 seconds from powerup to Login screen, another 7 to login and load the desktop. Amazing. This OS is totally unoptimized yet, which is the killer. Multitasking is unbelievable, even compared to NT and Linux. I can load 5 programs at once without the machine hickuping. Watching them open all at once from the Process Viewer. As for stability, of course there are bugs, the finder resets itself once in a while. When she crashes, you save work and you simply get fired back to your login screen. never has it locked up. lastly, even though in a raw form , the transparent classic apps run truly outstanding. Peace