Large, Involved Science project; lots of questions

[maje87c]

I intend to test a bunch of Operating Systems against each other for a science project. I would like to test 3d performance and processor performance in various operating environments to see which is the 'best.'

Here is what I'm thinking about doing:
Testing the compile time for a medium sized code and a large sized code for various languages.
Testing graphics performance with benchmarking apps or with built in game benchmarking.
Testing the time it takes to compress different kinds of files.

Here are the OS's I'm considering:(I'm open to suggestions)
Windows XP Pro
Mandrake 9.x(latest stable release)
Gentoo x(latest stable release)
Debian x(latest stable release)
Solaris 9(possibly)

Here is what I need to know:
Are the any open-source applications that can compile multiple languages that run in all of the OS's I mentioned?

Are there any games/3d benchmarks that will run in all or most of the OS's I mentioned?

Are there any important OS's I'm leaving out?

Is there any way to monitor the time it takes to compress a file?

[hard candy]

Mandrake, Debian, and Gentoo are all flavors of linux (not different OS's), like Win 2000 and Win XP are flavors. Don't forget Apple OSX and BSD (related but different enough)

This article is over a year old but it may help with setting up benchmarks
Tom's hardware (http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20020531/windows_gaming-04.html)
Americas Army would be good to test in most OS's, Quake III & II also.

[Gaccm]

you might want to check out SPECviewperf for the 3g benchmarking. it runs on all the OSes you listed.

also, to time how long it takes something:

time <command>

just read man time for the specifics.