GNUstep Solaris versus Apple MacOSX (performance comparison)

[Andreas Hoeschler]

Hi all,

we are just in the process of porting our business logic from Cocoa to 
GNUstep. This question is probably not only GNUstep related but might 
also depend on the used hardware. However, I would like to ask what 
experiences others have made with the performance of applications ported 
fom Cocoa to GNUstep

We have a "Dual G4 533MHz 512 MByte" running MacOSX on the left side and 
a "Netra X1 500MHz 736MByte" running Solaris 8 GNUstep on the right. 
Compiling sources on the Solaris machine takes 4 times as long as on the 
Mac. The application itself also runs slower on the Solaris machine. I 
know the Netra is the cheapest Sparc machine you can get costing only a 
fraction of the expenses for a Mac. However, since the Netra is 64Bit 
and has more memory I expected both machines to at least have the same 
performance. Where does this huge difference come from?

Now is this only hardware related - if yes, what are the essential 
differences between the Mac and the Netra - or is this more software 
related (GNUstep code, gcc,...)?

Thanks,

   Andreas