Kernel Comparison: Linux (2.6.20) versus Windows (Vista)
Widefox has apparently the most complete comparison between the 2 kernels mentioned above, covering all aspects from kernel and driver architecture, boot image, hardware architecture, multiprocessor limits, and a ton more. Head on over and take a look.
The one thing I found very interesting is that the Linux kernel has hardware architecture support for the Xbox, Sony PS2 and PS3, and the Nintendo Gamecube.
Another aspect where Linux really stands out is for its support for various different file systems, as well as virtual memory limits, and displayed better performance with scheduler time slicing. Vista also came in more than double than the Linux kernel in the SLOC rating for the kernel source code.
The comparison does not indicate the winner or loser of the kernel comparison, but given the amount of compared points you’ll have to decide for yourself which one you prefer. It’s great to see the two heavyweights side by side in so much detail, and looking at the amount of green and red columns it would seem as if Linux is clearly more adept at handling a bigger variety of hardware architectures, manage and utilize massive amounts of hardware better, and seems to get better performance out of the available hardware.
I have run both Windows Vista and OpenSUSE 10.2 (kernel 2.6.16) on the same notebook (Dell Latitude D820, 2 GB Ram, with Intel T2400 1.83 GHz chip) and there is a remarkable difference in performance overall with Linux being my first choice without a doubt.
