Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 were both released in October 2009. Microsoft and Canonical made claims that they have enhanced their operating systems to reduce boot-up times. I have both installed on my ASUS Netbook in a dual boot configuration. I decided to put them to the test to see which was the quickest.
The result? Boot-up time is a dead heat. Ubuntu 9.10 took 22 seconds to reach a login prompt while Windows 7 Ultimate took 23 seconds.
Where I did find a big difference is in shut-down time. Ubuntu is the clear winner shutting down in 7 seconds versus 12 seconds for Windows 7. I was sure to allow the systems to ‘settle down’ for 3 minutes each after login to eliminate the possibility that startup routines were still active.
UPDATE: 2009-11-10
I repeated the test on my Acer Notebook. Did clean install of both OS’s onto a brand new 500GB Hard-drive. Boot-up times favored Ubuntu, Ubuntu 9.10 took 29 seconds while Win7 took 44 seconds. This may suggest Win7 is well optimized for SSD but not regular hard-drives. The shutdown times heavily favored Ubuntu with a 7 seconds shutdown versus 22 seconds with Win7.
Not exactly a scientific study, but that is how these operating systems work for me (averaging the timings over 3 start ups and shutdowns on the same system).
Computers used for this test:
1. ASUS EeePC 900 with 2GB Ram and 32GB Runcore SSD. The PC900 has a 900Mhz Celeron M Processor.
2. Acer Aspire 5610-2762 with 2GB Ram and 500GB 7200rpm Seagate HD. 1.73Ghz Dual-Core Intel chip.
JPWhite's Tech Blog 
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