Tweet
The view from a longtime Linux User.
Greetings:
Long time, you ask, how long? Since kernel version 0.12 or so...so I have pretty much seen and used it all...
From this perspective, I can see a few primary characteristics that should influence what distros should be benchmarked. Here are my criteria:
1. Popularity
If no one uses it, it's kind of useless as a benchmark!
2. Unique features that give it an advantage
Gentoo with it's custom compile capabilities would be a good example of this.
3. Is it influential
How many other distros are based upon it? For example, Fedora is a highly influential distro, with many others, not the least of which Red Hat Enterprise Linux, being based upon it.
OK, so we have three criteria, let's look at those criteria in and the distros out there.
1. Popularity:
First, let's grab the top 20 distros, then eliminate the ones that are based upon other distros, but are not highly modified...For example, CentOS
1 Mint
2 Ubuntu
4 Debian
5 Fedora
6 openSUSE
8 Arch
17 Slackware
Now, Mint is a derivative distro, and so is Ubuntu..but both do a lot of changes from their base distro (Debian), and Mint fixes a lot of the things where people think Ubuntu "Jumped the Shark". Then there is openSUSE, which was based upon Slackware with a helping of Red Hat...I once saw it described as "Slackware with RPM". Of course, it has evolved greatly since those days...
2. Unique features
I mentioned Gentoo with it's source based (and very long if you are optimizing) installation. Slackware is also unique in that it is the oldest Distro, and the one that has the least amount of patching of the kernel...in fact, you can run an unpatched kernel on Slackware, and have few if any problems. Arch has a unique feature...it's is the most non-intuitive text based install system I have run across since the early days of Gentoo! It makes Slackware's text install system look like the flashiest GUI out there! Not a good "feature"! On that basis, I would remove Arch.
3. Influence
If you take Fedora, Debian and Slackware, you have the basis of the vast majority of the other distros out there.
So, after all that, here are the distros I would recommend be used for benchmarking, and why:
Mint
Because it is the most popular distro according to Distrowatch, almost double the number of Ubuntu. So it rates highly on criteria 1, and since it fixes a lot of the "problem" with Ubuntu, rates well on criteria 2. Don't see many distros based upon Mint yet...but as the top distro, I am sure they are coming.
Ubuntu
It's the best known Debian derivative....until Mint came a long. So it rates highly on criteria 1. It has added a great deal to the base Debian, and lately, some have said too much (hence we have Mint). Thus it rates highly on criteria 2...and the number of derivatives based upon it is huge, so it rates highly on 3
Debian
As it is the basis for both Mint and Ubuntu, it automatically scores high on both 1 and 3, and it's Apt-Get system is probably the best, or at least the most influential package management system out there, so despite the conservatism and security reputation, it would rate highly on on 2 as well.
Fedora
The offspring of Fedora/Red Hat are Legion. Another automatic on 1 and 3. It's RPM system is the second most popular, after Apt-Get, and the lest popular (the phenomena know as "RPM Hell").
openSUSE
It's popular, being #6 on the Distrowatch list..but it doesn't really have anything for 2, and it is an utter failure on 3.
Slackware
It's not as popular as the others, so it doesn't rate high on 1, but it is the oldest distro out there, and it does the least amount of modifications to the original source codes...generally only patches to fix bugs, or glaring incompatibles. More so than almost any other distro, unpatched software compiles easily, so those who like to roll their own software like to base things upon Slackware, so it rates highly on 2 from that, and it's age...and it has been highly influential, and many distros are based upon Slackware, so it rates high on 3 as well.
Gentoo
It doesn't rate high on Distrowatch listings, so criteria 1 is not great, it does rate very high on criteria 2 for it's the first source based distro, but it looses at little to the arcaness of it's install...but a well tuned emergence of Gentoo should be as fast as greased lightning! But it doesn't rate as high in 3.
Arch
It up there in criteria 1, being #7 on Distrowatch. It does have a unique configuration system...but it's far more arcane than Slackware or Gentoo to install, so it's uniqueness is actually it's burden. It does have almost a dozen derivatives...so it rates well there.
CentOS
Just mentioning it here, as it rates high on 1 as the highest rated Red Hat Enterprise Server (RHEL) based distor, but fails on 2, since it is based upon RHEL, which in turn is based upon Fedora...and it looses on 3 as well. Fedora is always more advanced, in some ways, CentOS is the consolation prize for those who really want to run RHEL, but can't afford the price.
In Summation:
The ones that should be the standards for testing are:
Mint, because it is the most popular distro by far. It also includes Debian, and Ubuntu, and unlike Ubuntu, it hasn't "jumped the shark".
Fedora, it is both popular, highly influential and lots of uniqueness.
Slackware is the oldest and in many ways, the simplest distro, and it has been highly influential as well. It is still fairly popular, and is probably the cleanest implementation of Linux, since they don't extensively modify the sources.
The "rolling release" problem disqualifies Gentoo and Arch, since they are not stable for any length of time. openSUSE might be a good candidate, but it doesn't offer enough uniqueness.
So, I would say based upon all this, the three standard distros to use for testing/benchmarking should be:
Mint
Fedora
Slackware
Greetings:
Long time, you ask, how long? Since kernel version 0.12 or so...so I have pretty much seen and used it all...
From this perspective, I can see a few primary characteristics that should influence what distros should be benchmarked. Here are my criteria:
1. Popularity
If no one uses it, it's kind of useless as a benchmark!
2. Unique features that give it an advantage
Gentoo with it's custom compile capabilities would be a good example of this.
3. Is it influential
How many other distros are based upon it? For example, Fedora is a highly influential distro, with many others, not the least of which Red Hat Enterprise Linux, being based upon it.
OK, so we have three criteria, let's look at those criteria in and the distros out there.
1. Popularity:
First, let's grab the top 20 distros, then eliminate the ones that are based upon other distros, but are not highly modified...For example, CentOS
1 Mint
2 Ubuntu
4 Debian
5 Fedora
6 openSUSE
8 Arch
17 Slackware
Now, Mint is a derivative distro, and so is Ubuntu..but both do a lot of changes from their base distro (Debian), and Mint fixes a lot of the things where people think Ubuntu "Jumped the Shark". Then there is openSUSE, which was based upon Slackware with a helping of Red Hat...I once saw it described as "Slackware with RPM". Of course, it has evolved greatly since those days...
2. Unique features
I mentioned Gentoo with it's source based (and very long if you are optimizing) installation. Slackware is also unique in that it is the oldest Distro, and the one that has the least amount of patching of the kernel...in fact, you can run an unpatched kernel on Slackware, and have few if any problems. Arch has a unique feature...it's is the most non-intuitive text based install system I have run across since the early days of Gentoo! It makes Slackware's text install system look like the flashiest GUI out there! Not a good "feature"! On that basis, I would remove Arch.
3. Influence
If you take Fedora, Debian and Slackware, you have the basis of the vast majority of the other distros out there.
So, after all that, here are the distros I would recommend be used for benchmarking, and why:
Mint
Because it is the most popular distro according to Distrowatch, almost double the number of Ubuntu. So it rates highly on criteria 1, and since it fixes a lot of the "problem" with Ubuntu, rates well on criteria 2. Don't see many distros based upon Mint yet...but as the top distro, I am sure they are coming.
Ubuntu
It's the best known Debian derivative....until Mint came a long. So it rates highly on criteria 1. It has added a great deal to the base Debian, and lately, some have said too much (hence we have Mint). Thus it rates highly on criteria 2...and the number of derivatives based upon it is huge, so it rates highly on 3
Debian
As it is the basis for both Mint and Ubuntu, it automatically scores high on both 1 and 3, and it's Apt-Get system is probably the best, or at least the most influential package management system out there, so despite the conservatism and security reputation, it would rate highly on on 2 as well.
Fedora
The offspring of Fedora/Red Hat are Legion. Another automatic on 1 and 3. It's RPM system is the second most popular, after Apt-Get, and the lest popular (the phenomena know as "RPM Hell").
openSUSE
It's popular, being #6 on the Distrowatch list..but it doesn't really have anything for 2, and it is an utter failure on 3.
Slackware
It's not as popular as the others, so it doesn't rate high on 1, but it is the oldest distro out there, and it does the least amount of modifications to the original source codes...generally only patches to fix bugs, or glaring incompatibles. More so than almost any other distro, unpatched software compiles easily, so those who like to roll their own software like to base things upon Slackware, so it rates highly on 2 from that, and it's age...and it has been highly influential, and many distros are based upon Slackware, so it rates high on 3 as well.
Gentoo
It doesn't rate high on Distrowatch listings, so criteria 1 is not great, it does rate very high on criteria 2 for it's the first source based distro, but it looses at little to the arcaness of it's install...but a well tuned emergence of Gentoo should be as fast as greased lightning! But it doesn't rate as high in 3.
Arch
It up there in criteria 1, being #7 on Distrowatch. It does have a unique configuration system...but it's far more arcane than Slackware or Gentoo to install, so it's uniqueness is actually it's burden. It does have almost a dozen derivatives...so it rates well there.
CentOS
Just mentioning it here, as it rates high on 1 as the highest rated Red Hat Enterprise Server (RHEL) based distor, but fails on 2, since it is based upon RHEL, which in turn is based upon Fedora...and it looses on 3 as well. Fedora is always more advanced, in some ways, CentOS is the consolation prize for those who really want to run RHEL, but can't afford the price.
In Summation:
The ones that should be the standards for testing are:
Mint, because it is the most popular distro by far. It also includes Debian, and Ubuntu, and unlike Ubuntu, it hasn't "jumped the shark".
Fedora, it is both popular, highly influential and lots of uniqueness.
Slackware is the oldest and in many ways, the simplest distro, and it has been highly influential as well. It is still fairly popular, and is probably the cleanest implementation of Linux, since they don't extensively modify the sources.
The "rolling release" problem disqualifies Gentoo and Arch, since they are not stable for any length of time. openSUSE might be a good candidate, but it doesn't offer enough uniqueness.
So, I would say based upon all this, the three standard distros to use for testing/benchmarking should be:
Mint
Fedora
Slackware
Comment