JAVA LINPAC

[johnhazel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I am in the process of porting an arcraft wing analysis 
spreadsheet (Liftroll.xls, see URL below) to a JAVA applet.
I my search to find a good matrix solver for JAVA I found:

http://www.netlib.org/benchmark/linpackjava/

Using my dual boot 800Mhz PIII, 64M eMachines computer (1.5Meg cable modem)
the test results were 27MFLOPS on Windows ME and onlt 2.7MFLOPS on LINUX
Mandrake 7.2 (installed using defaults). Both were running Netscape 4.7x browsers.
I was very suprized. Especially since the rumor about an internal MS report saying
Netscape ran faster on Linux was what really spiked my curiosity about Linux.
(yes that report reffered to text scrolling and graphics not JAVA but...)
For the work I want to do I can't tolerate a 10x performance hit.
Why the pathetic Linux JAVA performance? There must be some key OS issue.


To be clear about my computer system skill level (or lack of ):
I have written assembler code in classes and do understand general hardware functions.
But my OS knowledge is weak. Network understanding OK but specific practical knowlege is absent.
The open source movement is important to me but I have spent more than what I would have on 
Windows upgrades along with a rediculous amount of time getting LINUX up and running.
I have yet to print a page from Linux even though some installers have correctly detected my HP712c
and reported sucessful driver installs. 
Here is a history:
book Using Linux se. (includes REDHAT 5.1 and Caldera 1.2) Both versions would not install and run. $40
book Learning Linux Made Easy (includes Caldera 1.3) hangs on install at floppy boot ram disk initial. $30
magazine Linux? (included Storm Linux and Mandrake 7.0) Storm installs and runs but no modem. $15
                         (modem was Hays external 33.4)  Mandrake installs, OS dials/connects modem but Netscape can't see it.
Turbolinux box w/manuals installs, runs StarOffice no modem. $30
Redhat 6.1 box, installs but won't run xwindows $35? Best Buy
Caldera 2.4 download from Klug $2 + $20 dues
Bestlinux download $2
Corel Linux $15 mail order
Redhat 6.2 $10 Office Max sale
Mandrake 7.2 installs and sees cable modem (1st Linux try with cable modem) $35
                 detected HP712c and reported successful driver install but won't print.


Liftroll is at: http://www.geocities.com/jebbushell/COOKBOOK.htm 
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