There are some areas within the Desktop where you might expect Linux to
run faster than Solaris. Here are some examples:
1) Many GTK+ based programs now use the Xserver Xrender extension for
best performance. If you are running an Xserver that doesn't yet
support Xrender, then you will probably notice a 5-10% slowdown.
Note only a handful of Xsun graphics cards support Xrender, and
Xsun has Xrender off by default even when supported. Xsun is the
default Xserver when using Sparc machines. So, if you are using
Sparc, you might check to see if your card supports Xrender and turn
it on if it does.
In general Xserver extension support on Solaris tends to lag a
bit behind Linux. This affects both performance and the degree
of functionality supported within the desktop. We seem to be
catching up a bit lately, but I would say we are still behind.
For example, we are still working to get Comiz, the Xserver
compositing extension, and compositing window management support
into Solaris, while it has been in Linux for some time.
2) Some areas of the GNOME stack (such as cairo, libpixman) have been
tuned to use MMX hardware acceleration. In some cases, GCC-style
assembly is used, which does not compile with the Sun Studio
compilers. Even when we compile such MMX assembly, MMX only
benefits x86 and not VIS-based Sparc chips.
The desktop team has made efforts to make various desktop
components also use mediaLib. mediaLib has the advantage that
it improves performance on both x86 and Sparc. However, there are
still some areas where the code has not yet been best tuned for
Solaris at all.
Therfore, some hardware acceleration may not be enabled on Solaris to
the same degree as on Linux.
3) Different OS' using different techniques to improve performance.
Pre-loading libraries, tuning library symbol tables, setting up
system defaults (such as how caching works), etc. Some distros may
be better at performance tuning for the desktop than Solaris.
Brian
