In a new twist of the Windows vs. Mac OS X vs. Linux, Windows Vista SP1, Mac OS X and Ubuntu were thrown against one another in an odd arena designed to test the limits of each operating system in terms of ad hoc heavy workloads. According to end users that were willing to torture their respective platforms, Vista, Mac OS X and Ubuntu all were capable of running in excess of 100 applications simultaneously and still being functional. In the images and videos included with this article you will be able to see Windows Vista SP1 running no less than 108 programs at the same time, Ubuntu Linux run 110 applications and Mac OS X going as high as 150.

Of course it all started with Mac OS X. burnflare92 delivered a screenshot on Flickr of Mac BookPro running all the applications installed simultaneously. "This is why the mac rocks! My macbook pro 2.2Ghz was working smoothly even after opening all the Applications in the application folder and utilities folder. There are about more than 150 Applications open right now in expose. 4GB RAM. All the apps were launched at the same time. Not one-by-one," burnflare92 stated.

It is common knowledge that Windows Vista is a resource hog, just as much as the general perception that the operating system delivers an inferior performance compared to its predecessor, Windows XP. But Gizmodo offered video proof of Vista SP1 running 108 programs together and using just 30% of the processor. "I'm running a stock Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with 4GB of RAM. I counted 108 apps total and gave up bored after I had running anything from Photoshop, Visual studio 2008, Office professional 2007, Safari, and Media Center all the way down to that resource hog, Minesweeper," stated Daniel Smith, the owner of the system in question.

At the same time, don't believe even for a second that Linux is incapable of holding its own. In fact, Ubuntu went all the way up to 110 applications run simultaneously according to Vadim Peretokin, who also provided video proof. Peretokin is running "Ubuntu Linux featuring: 110 different applications open, among them, 2 Web Browsers, 3 File Mangers, 3 Music Players, 2 Word Processors, 4 Drawing apps, 1 IDE, 1 Torrent client, 1 All-in-one messenger. Yes, Firefox 2 and OOo were running at the same time. Along with 108 other programs. All on 2gb ram, and a dualcore 1.5ghz Intel."





110 Programs in Linux from Vadim Peretokin on Vimeo.