Linux distros and Apple beat Microsoft’s homepage uptime

chandru.in · 24-11-2008, 12:16 AM

Source

Quote:

All Linux distributions have their own home base: their homepage. How well is this homepage taken care of and how well does it perform? To answer these questions we have monitored the uptime and load time of the homepages for 16 Linux distributions for a month.

And since it is a question we can’t resist asking: how do they compare to the homepages of corporate OS giants like Microsoft and Apple? We included those in this survey so that we could answer that question as well.

It should be taken into account that these websites have different kinds of resources behind them. Many are run by enthusiasts with a minimum of resources, while others have corporate backing. Keep this in mind while reviewing the data. The intent of this survey is simply meant to show the current situation, not point any fingers.

Nice to see a free desktop oriented distribution like Ubuntu fare very close to the commercial and proven server grade distros Linux. The site points to unplanned downtime of 29 hours during a week-end for Arch Linux. If not for that it should have fared pretty well too, at about 24 mins.

amitava82 · 24-11-2008, 12:30 AM

lol what a comparison!! Did they even thought about number of hits each of those sites get? And not to mention some of those sites use plain html compared to gigantic db driven sites.

chandru.in · 24-11-2008, 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitava82

lol what a comparison!! Did they even thought about number of hits each of those sites get? And not to mention some of those sites use plain html compared to gigantic db driven sites.

They did not consider the amount of resources the maintainers of the site had too when giving out the numbers.

Kl@w-24 · 24-11-2008, 11:26 AM

I see another Linux vs Windows flame-war coming up...

ravi_9793 · 24-11-2008, 11:42 AM

I don't think.. microsoft.com is down most of time. (sorry, I don't monitor any site uptime)
Regarding load time... it depend on few things like.
1. content on homepage
2. Server Load..... etc

So, there is nothing to compare in it.

FilledVoid · 24-11-2008, 12:31 PM

Quote:

It is interesting to see that even with limited resources, many of the teams behind the various Linux distributions are managing a better homepage uptime and load time than Microsoft does, at least during this time period.

To Microsoft’s defense, they have one of the most trafficked web pages in the world. On the other hand, so does Apple, and they managed to keep their downtime to a mere 2 minutes

I seriously doubt that statistics of Apple and Linux combined could even reach anywhere near those of Microsoft.

**MetalheadGautham** · 24-11-2008, 02:48 PM

Such news have no significance at all IMO. What does home page uptime and load have to do with performance and reliability of the platform ? Its like comparing the length and thickness of hair on a boxer's hand and judging his strength. Totally stupid and meaningless.

Pat · 24-11-2008, 03:36 PM

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Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

What does home page uptime and load have to do with performance and reliability of the platform ?

Man you really crack me up sometimes. When did "anyone" here say anything about it.

**MetalheadGautham** · 24-11-2008, 03:57 PM

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Originally Posted by Pat

Man you really crack me up sometimes. When did "anyone" here say anything about it.

Never. But thats what my point is all about. Instead of discussing those things, people are rambling away on the web stats of some select web pages that only a small fraction of the users of each OS access regularly.

I fail to understand why.

Faun · 24-11-2008, 04:06 PM

peace and love

x3060 · 24-11-2008, 05:36 PM

they will do anything to create a fight....why compare the site?

thewisecrab · 24-11-2008, 06:13 PM

Oh god, I sense a flame coming up.....

chandru.in · 24-11-2008, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

What does home page uptime and load have to do with performance and reliability of the platform ?

Absolutely nothing. Only thing it says is the amount for care taken to keep the sites up and running.

iMav · 24-11-2008, 09:16 PM

Care to keep a site up and running? Gosh I read pay Rs. 250/- and get 99.9% up time.

I'm sure most developers can afford that. Besides how many people do ever go to a distro's site anyway.

amitava82 · 24-11-2008, 09:18 PM

You need 0% maintenance to run a "index.html" on a reliable 3rd party server. Proves anything?

iMav · 25-11-2008, 12:15 AM

@Amitava, yea it proves 1 thing ... that the hosting services that the distros use are pretty good and recommended.

Kl@w-24 · 25-11-2008, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iMav

@Amitava, yea it proves 1 thing ... that the hosting services that the distros use are pretty good and recommended.

/me waits for someone to claim that most hosting companies run on Linux, hence.....

iMav · 25-11-2008, 01:52 AM

^^ I'm waiting for the next comparison: Linux Distros pay less for their domain names as compared to Microsoft & Apple.

Archlinux.org costs less than microsoft.com ... it could've cost more if it had a couple of more users. But please keep in mind that most of these domain names were bought by enthusiasts and not corporates.

**MetalheadGautham** · 25-11-2008, 06:18 AM

Hosting ? Some distros are even hosted in free hosting sites, did you know that ?
Often, uptime is purely luck. Issues may arise in the server which nobody expects.
And as for this 79 minutes downtime of microsoft, that is nothing to be ashamed of.

As for site, as I said before, the sight need not be flashy with a complicated design. It just needs to fullfill its role - to act as a portal to the OS.

PS: offtopic: my wordpress blog has 100% uptime so far

infra_red_dude · 25-11-2008, 07:10 AM

.... and I'm waiting for this thread to be closed!

Faun · 25-11-2008, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

PS: offtopic: my wordpress blog has 100% uptime so far

Purely hypothetical

**MetalheadGautham** · 25-11-2008, 07:05 PM

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Originally Posted by T159

Purely hypothetical

Who cares as long as service is good ? thats what I am trying to say.

Anyway, one more thing we need to remember here is that Ubuntu.com is a high budget project, Apple.com is a ultra high budget project, while Microsoft.com is an uber ultra high budget project. The other distros are much below Ubuntu, with the exception of perhaps Mandriva, Fedora and SuSE which are also relatively high in budget. Remember that budget also decides how much you can do to make your site great to look at.

and yeah, for REAL downtime, take a look at BSNL's Dataone portal.

chandru.in · 25-11-2008, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

and yeah, for REAL downtime, take a look at BSNL's Dataone portal.

Downtime is not the right measure for that. You gotta check the uptime rather.

manish646 · 26-11-2008, 12:49 PM

no way a linux microsoft war is going on becauz
microsoft windows is no match for linux
][

**ico** · 26-11-2008, 01:07 PM

....such threads are funny........

**MetalheadGautham** · 26-11-2008, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chandru.in

Downtime is not the right measure for that. You gotta check the uptime rather.

Hell yeah. In 12 months, only on around 8 months am I able to check usage, and even in those 8 months, I can say that not one month went without a few days of downtime, and sometimes its easily one or two weeks.