Question

Is Python generally slower on Windows vs. a *nix machine? Python seems to blaze on my Mac OS X machine whereas it seems to run slower on my Window’s Vista machine. The machines are similar in processing power and the vista machine has 1GBs more memory.

I particularly notice this in Mercurial but I figure this may simply be how Mercurial is packaged on windows.

Answer 1

I wanted to follow up on this and I found something that I believe is ‘my answer’. It appears that Windows (vista, which is what I notice this on) is not as fast in handling files. This was mentioned by tony-p-lee.

I found this comparisons of Ubuntu vs Vista vs Win7. Their results are interesting and like they say, you need to take the results with a grain of salt. But I think the results lead me to the cause. Python, which I feel was indirectly tested, is about equivalent if not a tad-bit faster on Windows.. See the section “Richards benchmark”.

Here is their graph for file transfers:

_{(source: tuxradar.com)}

I think this specifically help address the question because Hg is really just a series of file reads, copies and overall handling. Its likely this is causing the delay.

http://www.tuxradar.com/content/benchmarked-ubuntu-vs-vista-vs-windows-7