Can somebody explain why Windows is so much slower than... basically every other OS? I mean, what does Windows-Update differently then a
apt-get upgrade?AFAIK the main reason is in how windows handles the filesystem - in linux everything is a file and all files are cached by default unless that memory is needed by default, so 100% memory utilization is the norm and where Linux operates most efficiently. In windows file caching seems architecturally be an after-thought and much less efficient - i.e. this causes handling a lot of files (like when updating the OS, where a lot of files need to be modified) to break the caching system and cause a lot of cache thrashing.
Windows updates are kind of snapshots, they replace more files than necessary and keep the old files incase the update fails or you wish to roll back x update. Besides that you're also given new packages and features you never asked for, because Windows loves their guinea pigs and doesn't care if something breaks because of it.
Funny things that immutable OS like MicroOs or Silverblue do that 1000 times more efficiently and you can even continue usyn system normally. Update applies after reboot.
Windows is just a pile of crap put together with a duct tape and chewing gum. They did no significant progress in decades.
While I'm unsure of the actual reasons, the file system alone seems too be a pain.
Half the time when i update on linux, less space is used by the updates..
Total update size: -56mb.
Beat that, windoze.
Arch: 30sec for update, 2min for full system upgrade
Kubuntu: 2min for update, 10min for full system upgrade
Windows: 5min for update, 30min for full system upgrade
Ubuntu: Please close firefox so i can install update. You closed it? Well... the update can wait.
Gentoo: 💀
NixOS: Update channels/update flake.lock, and wait till your system/flake updates, then reboot. If you mess up, then roll back.
At the moment i am actually quite a happy 🐧 with Gentoo. While the update "experience" is much worse than everything i know, i think source based distributions are just next-level open source (though compiling is too resource intensive for office computers).
And because my PC is really fast, i let it update every weekend for like 1h or so while i am cooking (food, not myself with the heat of my PC).There is just one nagging thought always in my mind: What if the istallation breaks, and i am unable to fix it? I will never remember all the changes i made to all the config files, which packages i installed and in which order i installed them. It's going to take months to get to where i am now.
That's why i have been thinking about using NixOS ❄ next time, once Gentoo breaks. The idea of configuring everything from one location and just having to copy one configuration file/folder seems almost to good to be true.
The internet even claims NixOS to be source based, however when i installed it in a VM, the installation was way to fast to be source based.Maybe i was missing something in the configuration. i will definitely look into it once my beloved current install falls apart.
It's compiling NT kernel.
Ubuntu: please restart to finalise the update.
Firefox: please restart Firefox as it has been updated.
The problem isn't necessarily the restart itself. It's the frequency and amount of time windows spends at 0 and 100% before finally doing something and the amount of times I get frustrated and just pull power.
I also hate that Firefox does it, and at least it doesn't "Please wait, we're running
du bs=8g if=/dev/random of=/hello" every time
