Google Chrome OS Benchmarked Against Ubuntu and Moblin, Comes Up Slow

Chrome OS dev code only just went public , but Phoronix has already thrown it on a Samsung NC10 netbook to test its performance and battery-life against Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10, Moblin 2.1, Fedora 12, and openSUSE 11.2. Interesting results ahead.

Ultimately, Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 did the best, and openSUSE 11.2 also did well. But Chrome OS performance was far from spectacular. That shouldn't be a huge surprise, though. It's not slated to ship for like a year, and its performance should pickup as builds continue. The main surprise looks to be Moblin 2.1's comparatively slower speed, despite Intel's efforts to optimize it for netbooks. It looks pretty, though.

All distros were tested with default configurations/packages, except for Chrome OS . They "needed to remount the root file-system in a read-write mode and add in the standard Ubuntu Karmic package repositories for which Google's operating system is based."

The Phoronix test suite included H.264 video playback, OpenArena, LZMA and 7-Zip file compression, IOzone, PostMark, WAV to OGG audio and H.264 video encoding. Full test results at: [ Phoronix via Slashdot ]

Send an email to Danny Allen, the author of this post, at dallen@gizmodo.com .

31 Discussions

Xterm11:11mretX

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:21:26

@natural selection: I'm sorry, but there is no imagery at this zoom level.

Oh... Fuck.

Xterm11:11mretX

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:19:25

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi:
Work It Harder Make It Better
Do It Faster Makes Us stronger
More Than Ever Hour After
Our Work Is Never Over

nbsp

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:51:06

@natural selection: I'd be more worried if Chrome OS wasn't garbage.

ImmaLion

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:48:13

Will be nice to follow how much the optimizations in 2010 will make it harder, better, faster, stronger...

TyphoidKitten

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:39:34

@natural selection: What you don't understand is that Google already has absolute control.

amanda-hugnkiss

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:10:24

To be brutally honest I'm not suprised that Moblin is slow. Intel is not a software company. I work for them and all their own SW sucks. its buggy and slow. Moblin looks cool though!

Serpentor X

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:57:13

Also don't forget Google has their own hardware specs Chrome will be required to run on, which probably won't look like an NC10

Ajh

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:54:22

I found it pretty useful for if you just want to boot in and check something online..plug in the usb and log in you know?

One bonus that isn't mentioned anywhere yet really. Chrome themes theme the entire Chrome OS.

grimdeath9740

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:31:52

@OCEntertainment: ....wait for the product we get in a year..then I will be interested

rchapoteau002

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:09:18

I played with the USB version yesterday and I gotta say I'm not impressed with using it on anything other then a netbook. As of now I dont' see of a way to work and browse at the same time. A lot of people that need to use documents or anything need to be able to see something other then the document they are working on at the time. Thats a whole lot of tabbing around, and I dont' see a whay around that.

Its good for anyone that just wants to get online and surf for a little bit, but thats really it. I can't see being productive with this product.

Justin Ballen

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:57:04

I'm glad Danny said "That shouldn't be a huge surprise, though. It's not slated to ship for like a year, and its performance should pickup as builds continue."

I started reading and the first thing that came to mind was "No shit, sherlock." Until those two sentences, of course.

chefgon

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:30:22

So they took early development code and hacked it, then put it into a speed test? SURPRISE! IT'S SLOW!

No shit, sherlock.

x40sw0n

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:22:24

Interesting. More from the OpenSUSE perspective for me (I don't have high hopes that Chrome OS would be production ready yet). I am surprised that OpenSUSE 11.2 scored so high as it has recently been running pretty high specs comparatively. I run 11.1 on a production desktop at home, but may have to knock it over to 11.2 if it's beating out Moblin and others. Wonder what kind of under-the-hood work the Novell guys have been doing.

Mr.Affrox

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:20:36

@Alfisted: You're not actually using the OS, but rather controlling another computer at Google headquarters via screen sharing where a monkey running Android monitors your every move.

nathan007

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:17:24

I'm sure that the lack of optimization and the enabling of all layers of debugging aren't really helping Chrome OS's speed either.

OCEntertainment

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:15:26

@Danny Allen: I honestly can't tell if your making fun of pz or yourself. Either way, *tips hat*.

OCEntertainment

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:14:32

@natural selection: I'm sure if you knew half of the not-exactly-secret connections going on behind the scenes of other major corporations, you'd have an entire closet full of designer tin foil hats by now. For example, did you know the guy who owns Fox News also owns MySpace?! OMG!!!

Or, in the immortal words of Reducto: "There is no government. There's only a few multinational corporations that own everything!" *Time Warner/AOL sign blinks on*

toeandno001

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:11:59

Of course, I assume they are testing it on hardware approved by Google and testing the final release version...oh, wait...

UnderLoK

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:06:04

@natural selection: Or they could wind up like GM...

Bennal

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:04:39

Chrome OS didn't do that badly considering it's like a half baked loaf of bread.

In the accouncement Google said it was only going to be put on hardware that they specifically chose and worked to support.

The fact it works at all right now is pretty impressive.

natural selection

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:52:39

I am really starting to worry about Google. Maybe it's paranoia from using my Volcano, but Google is competing with all areas of the tech industry. Google is the Andrew Carnegie of the internet, and it's only a matter of time before they have absolute control. Does anyone else think there is a way to protect ourselves, or are we all doomed to surrender our lives over to a merciless corporation?

TonyRockyHorror

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:50:45

It's completely ridiculous to do this now.

Hearthatvoiceagain supports Channan's Law

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:44:46

In other news bears found to shit in the woods.

As pretty much everyone who has posted before me has said. This is an unfair comparrison and therefore you're title is deliberately missleading.

Justin Paulson

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:42:23

After looking through the tests Chrome OS was not far behind in almost every test with its only major downfall seeming to be the battery consumption and EXT3 file system (same as moblin) instead of EXT4. The author also mentions that speedstep was not operating correctly with this build of Chromium. I would say Chrome OS did pretty well for being a full year out of distribution.

Pawky

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:31:10

Gee, an unoptimized and not yet released OS is slower then one that is already released?

Who would have guessed?

Danny Allen

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:29:46

@pz: *yawn*

TonyWonder

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:27:46

i'm really interested in ChromOS. Just as a small computer in the kitchen to surf the net and pay bills etc. Does anyone know if ChromeOS will be an option on various netbook or will i have to go into Best Buy and buy a Googlebook?

premvikashupadhyay

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:23:23

@Alfisted: lol

Alfisted

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:20:03

Of course it's slower. It takes time to secretly cache every keystroke.

pz

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:18:17

An unreleased, unoptimized build of an OS doesn't match up against existing releases.

Thanks for at least pointing it out, but this isn't newsworthy.

Covertghost

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:15:22

Won't Chrome OS be optimized for a specific setup of google approved hardware though?

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