# Speed comparison between mac/linux and windows **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [July 27, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speed-comparison-between-mac-linux-and-windows/172760 "2009-07-27T18:50:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kghose)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speed-comparison-between-mac-linux-and-windows/172760/1 "2009-07-27T18:50:42Z")
Hi, I remember there was a period when there was a substantial performance difference between windows and mac/linux. I experienced this personally when I moved from rails 1.2 or so to a recent version on windows (it became unbearably slow) and then switched to a mac when the performance went back to ‘normal’ all with the same app. I was wondering if anything has changed since then (2008) and if rails/ ruby is comparable performance wise on windows nowadays? A quick search on the internet did not turn up anything past late 2008. best -Kaushik ---
**Author:** ![kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kghose)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speed-comparison-between-mac-linux-and-windows/172760/2 "2009-07-28T01:48:35Z")
I run a Rails development environment on both a Windows machine and a Linux VM running on the same machine. (I actually use the Linux VM 100% of the time now for Rails). The Linux VM is much faster - RSpec tests run 3 to 4 times faster, as do all rake tasks (again, running on a VM on the Windows machine). Nothing has changed since 2008. As I’ve posted before, I see no reason to develop on Windows, especially since you can get the VMWarePlayer and a Linux image for free. ---
**Author:** ![kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kghose)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speed-comparison-between-mac-linux-and-windows/172760/3 "2009-07-28T17:34:28Z")
Hi, On Jul 27, 7:47 pm, “E. Litwin” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > As I’ve posted before, I see no reason to develop on Windows, > especially since you can get the VMWarePlayer and a Linux image for > free. I really should do this myself, but if you have any insight: does the production environment run faster? Or is basically Rails still annoyingly slow on windows? best -Kaushik ---
**Author:** ![kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kghose)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speed-comparison-between-mac-linux-and-windows/172760/4 "2009-07-28T18:11:22Z")
I have never run a production environment on Windows so I don’t have hard numbers. However, some basic testing of running my application in Windows vs Linux does show that the Linux environment (hosted on a VM) serves up the pages faster. ---
**Author:** ![kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@kghose](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kghose)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speed-comparison-between-mac-linux-and-windows/172760/5 "2009-08-03T15:05:05Z")
> I was wondering if anything has changed since then (2008) and if rails/ > ruby is comparable performance wise on windows nowadays? A quick > search on the internet did not turn up anything past late 2008. It is still slower in windows, though less so if you use the mingw builds of ruby. > **[ruby 1.9 one click installer](http://programming-gone-awry.blogspot.com/2009/05/ruby-19-one-click-installer.html)** > > Here's how to get a pretty easy working 1.9/1.8.6 mingw (from my post to ruby installers list) for the files at http://rubyinstaller.org/dow... =r