Comment Re:icewm (Score 3, Funny) 611
Intel has probably spent an order of magnitude more engineering time in optimizing its Windows display drivers specifically for smooth motion under Aero.
Also, I wouldn't at all be surprised if Windows Aero is (slightly) inherently more efficient, for the simple reason that they developed DirectX 10 to do Aero well, while in Linux the developers of the various desktop effects options had to make use of software developed by other people, and hope that the Khronos Group would advance OpenGL in such a way that desktop effects become more efficient.
Linux is also inherently more difficult to optimize for because it is far more diverse. This isn't a problem for more powerful CPUs and graphics cards, but those with less powerful devices are going to feel some pain.