Mac vs. Linux for Python Development

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 9:32 AM, Mark H. Harris <harrismh777 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Py3.3.4 and the latest Active TCL are stable on OSX 10.6 or higher. I have been very pleased with IDLE on both Gnu/Linux and OSX ( I refuse to use Windows ever again, ever) and my latest experience has been fabulous, really.  My hat is off to the folks that have made IDLE the simple stable and powerful IDE that it is. I am being genuine about this.
>
> Another reason for using Gnu/Linux (and/or OSX) is that generally they are faster.  Faster loading, and faster running.  Serious.  I have been hearing of (4) second import times for decimal, for instance. Its almost instantaneous on Gnu/Linux, or OSX.  Also, run times are considerably faster.  That has less to do with the Windows version of python, and more to do with the Windows version. YMMV
>

The point of this thread isn't really about Windows, so I'll try to
keep it brief, but there are a couple of things I should clarify. The
first one is about the 4+ second import time for decimal. I cited
that, recently, and comparing that with "almost instantaneous" on
Debian (which is what I experience) isn't entirely fair, because it's
more about cold cache versus warm cache. (When I shut down IDLE and
fire it up again, I get sub-second import time. Not as fast as the "so
quick as to be immeasurable" that my Debian box gave, but still
quicker than the 4ish second cold cache.)

Actually, I do find that my Linux boxes manage their disk caches far
better than my Windows boxes do. Not sure if that's Linux versus
Windows, or the ext3/4 versus NTFS file system drivers, or something
else, but a warm cache on any of my Linux boxes gives a *huge*
advantage, and my Windows boxes still show it a bit slower.

ChrisA