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Solid-state disk (SSD) drive architecture can play a big role in how fast a computer boots up and performs. But how big a role the SSDs play - and how much faster an operating system is - depends as much on the operating system as on the drive. Although none of the mainstream operating systems now in use have been optimised to work better with SSDs, some do natively work more efficiently than others, according to storage experts.

Of the recent operating systems that have been tested, would you believe the winner so far is ... Windows 2000?
That aging operating system, says Saeed Arash Far, engineering manager at SSD manufacturer Patriot Memory, is markedly faster than Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS X or Linux when using NAND flash memory. Far says his company's tests showed that Windows 2000 is 5 percent to 8 percent faster over its newer rivals because "Windows 2000 doesn't run any applications in the background.

"We're getting ridiculous numbers with Windows 2000," he says. "When it comes to Vista, it is faster than XP, but with XP, you have the luxury of turning off background applications. ... With Vista, you can't."

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According to Far, Mac OS X runs "a little faster than Vista" with an SSD drive, but Linux is "always faster" than Vista or Mac OS X - to the tune of 1 percent to 2 percent - because like Windows 2000, "it never runs anything in the background."

"If you really want to go inside [the OS numbers], Windows 98 was the fastest of all," Far says. But there's a downside: Windows 98 does not support wear-levelling technology, which evenly distributes data writes to NAND flash memory to ensure no single area of an SSD wears out faster than another. Far says his company's SSDs would wear out in only about a year when running Windows 98.

That brings users who may be wondering about the advantages of SSDs back to the Big Three operating systems: Windows Vista and XP and Mac OS X. The claims and counterclaims about SSD technology and operating systems highlight the intricacies of marrying operating systems designed for hard disk drives with the newer technology of SSDs.