this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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In Linux, the
locate
command is crazy fast. I am amazed at how slow search is in Windows, compared to this.Locate cheats by using a pre-built index.
But after the 2.5 years it takes to build the Windows index wouldn't it be the same - just searching through a built index?
It's been a while since I've had a Windows machine, but doesn't Windows index the content of files as well as their names? If so, that would have fairly profound differences from
slocate
.lol i remember hunting and systematically ripping out the file indexer in like vista? I think? It was terrible lol
It was honestly hilarious how bad it was and how much it could slow the system down in some situations. I'd be curious to see just how much of it was a byproduct of HDD's - that is to say, just how slow is it even in solid state drives!
Windows indexes files too though.
Windows has a pre-built index as well (or at least it has a search indexer service that enjoys as warm a CPU as possible). That doesn't appear to improve the speed of search, though.
Unless you use everything (that's what the software is called) to search.
It's so fast I'm amazed why microsoft can't have something similar out of the box.