Launching applications

Why is Lunix so fucking slow when launching applications? Launching Mozilla, Opera, and other multiplatform applications takes 2-3 times as long as it does on Windows 2000 in the same computer.

---Cold---
Linux: 5.8 seconds
WinXP: 5.2 seconds
---Warm---
Linux: 2.6 seconds
WinXP: 4.2 seconds

Same box with Dual-boot FYI.
so in this case the startup speed awards goes to WinXP. but by a margin that most users would'nt notice.

On the speed for Warm startup i can't really explain why it takes longer for WinXP on that one. perhaps Linux does some caching magic here.

Disclaimer: Both these systems were quite recently setup and so are quite clean.

Specs of the box used to test.

600mhz Cellery *cough* Celeron.
512MB SD-RAM
nVidia GeForce 440-MX PCI
20GB Drive @ ATA-66. unknown brand.

Distro/Products used in the test
Ubuntu Linux 5.10(Breezy)
Windows XP SP2