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Some guys say that TeXLive 2010 compiles faster than MikTeX 2.9, while others say that this is not true and say that the speed of the two systems is similar.
What do you think? Please explain your reasons to support your viewpoints.

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This site is only for Q&A, not for discussions. You could post it in comp.text.tex instead. – Martin Scharrer♦ Feb 10 '11 at 14:47
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IMHO it is still 'argumentative', which disqualifies it. Simply install both on the same machine and measure the time! – Martin Scharrer♦ Feb 10 '11 at 14:54
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“What do you think? [...] explain your reasons to support your viewpoints.” really reminds me of essay assignments in school. – Caramdir Feb 10 '11 at 15:45
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It could depend on format files, using fonts, different engines, so I doubt such a general question would be much useful. The high number of comments without any answer until now is a sign that the question is controversial. Note that it might be closed. Btw. such an open question could be made community wiki, because you don't expect one best answer but many contributions. – Stefan Kottwitz♦ Feb 10 '11 at 19:24
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@Yossi: Sometimes the run times on my modern laptop last for 40-50 seconds. So I think it is important to choose the faster system. – Vahid Damanafshan Feb 10 '11 at 19:55
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closed as not constructive by Caramdir, Alan Munn, Martin Scharrer♦, Stefan Kottwitz♦ Feb 11 '11 at 9:50

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, see the FAQ for guidance.

1 Answer

up vote 4 down vote accepted

A lot of time is used by searching and loading all the files and there are a lot to load. The basic TeX engine is the same, so it depends on the configuration of your local system. You can only compare run times on the same machine with both installed, MiKTeX and TeXLive. Comparing run times when an example runs on different machines makes no sense, too many dependencies to the system configuration.

However, on the same machine you can also have some differences depending on the file seaching and loading. And it maybe that sometimes MiKTeX is faster and sometimes TeXLive ...

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