Musing with booting time in Scientific Linux 6, Ubuntu Lucid, Windows 7

Just comparing in booting and login time between Scientific Linux 6, Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04.2 LTS, Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1, all system in 64 bit version.

All system already installed many software that can be used for daily activity like listening various audio formats, watching various video formats, office productivity, internet browsing, updated to the current version, installed in the same HDD(one laptop) with 4 partitions(Win 7, Ubuntu, SL, swap for Linux), development programs installed(C/C++ library, java SDK, python), converting audio/video(SL not).

Specific system configuration:

• Ubuntu mostly installed by many programs(my primary workstation), i didn't tuned it at all. Installed since it alpha version and just doing upgrade until now version 10.04.2 LTS, using live CD version 64 bit.
• SL only for fun and learning a red hat based distro. Installed from a 64 bit live DVD version.
• Windows, i use it for other software that Ubuntu not had yet, like visio, wathing HD movie using ATI vga instead using the AMD processor. And it installed an Antivirus from Microsoft Security Essential cause it rarely false alarm, and firewall using windows default, i knew it could boot faster without it, but it will make me installing windows again and again, many non Microsoft programs turned off on startup like java server, matlab server, etc. This Windows already installed when i bought the laptop, urgh yikes :( , i wonder how much the cost reduced while it not included Windows 7 :p .

The tests result

Below is the code to draw the figure(bar chart comparison) above, using Python with matplotlib module

#!/usr/bin/python

from matplotlib.pylab import arange, bar, xticks, title, ylabel, grid, show, legend

# ubuntu, sl, win
ut = [39, 7, 6]; st = [50, 10, 13]; wt = [44, 122, 20]

idx = arange(3)
wdx = 0.25

grid()
ub = bar(idx, ut, wdx, color='orange')
sb = bar(idx+wdx, st, wdx, color='red')
wb = bar(idx+wdx+wdx, wt, wdx, color='blue')
legend((ub[0], sb[0], wb[0]), ('Ubuntu 10.04', 'SL 6', 'Windows 7'))

xticks(idx+wdx, ('Booting', 'Login', 'Shutdown'))
ylabel('time in seconds')
title('Less is better')
show()

My measurement procedure:

• using stopwatch in Nokia N900 so my fingers reaction time are to be considered
• all systems booted from grub2 provided by Ubuntu lucid
• booting time measured from grub2 until it show login window
• log on time measured from pressing enter(password already entered) in login window until it show desktop and ready to use(including the LED of HDD not blinking again), well i can use(open a program) while the LED still blinking but it took the same time just like i wait LED off then open a program(yes in this case only happened with windows 7)
• just open an open office writer in all system, then close it
• shutdown time measured from pressing shutdown until the laptop turned off.