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  • 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

    Comment


    • Manjaro <3

      Comment


      • Most of the people are clearly not getting the point.
        The point is NOT YOU FAVORITE DISTRIBUTION! Or that of your wife!
        The point is TECHNOLOGICALLY BEST DISTRIBUTION.

        The point is a distribution, that features latest technologies that will find their ways in other respins/distributions.
        The point is to benchmark the herald of Linux tech, not some NIH, half-arsed, buggy, talk-about-humanity-yet-do-crap non-Linux!

        Use Fedora already.

        The problem with Arch/Gentoo is that's simply too much for Michael to integrate and maintain, its a DIY.
        Fedora has bleeding edge and is maintained by professionals. So, that you can expect it to present the raw potential of bleeding edge Linux without much fumbling and without bugs of original distro-only projects.


        Originally posted by ayandon View Post
        I love Fedora more, but I use Ubuntu for a strange reason.

        This might be the World strangest reason.
        My beloved Wife likes Ubuntu for its easiness
        She is not a tech person. Just surfs Internet and plays Flash based games.
        You are confusing something! Michael is NOT to measure your wife, but Linux technologies...!

        Comment


        • I think that openSUSE are Xubuntu the best options. I voted for openSUSE, but Xubuntu is another good option.

          Comment


          • i was looking and it says This poll will close on 08-26-2013 at 12:13 AM

            30 days so let see what happen's and, you know we will see Wayland vs Mir Benchmarks On Phoronix any ways, i like to see Fedora Linux win, but we all know Marks trolls will come out of the wood works on this one

            Only one can be the winner in the Battle of Fedora Linux Vs Manjaro Linux Vs Ubuntu BSD
            Last edited by LinuxGamer; 28 July 2013, 05:30 AM.

            Comment


            • Fedora!

              My heart was torn between Sabayon which I want, and Fedora which I think has a chance.
              Will definitely want a second round for the top three finalists.

              Comment


              • Originally posted by coastiron View Post
                I think that openSUSE are Xubuntu the best options. I voted for openSUSE, but Xubuntu is another good option.
                Xubuntu ships the same borked Xorg, the same borked kernel, and none of systemd - as Ubuntu does!

                Comment


                • Originally posted by brosis View Post
                  Most of the people are clearly not getting the point.
                  The point is NOT YOU FAVORITE DISTRIBUTION! Or that of your wife!
                  The point is TECHNOLOGICALLY BEST DISTRIBUTION.

                  The point is a distribution, that features latest technologies that will find their ways in other respins/distributions.
                  The point is to benchmark the herald of Linux tech, not some NIH, half-arsed, buggy, talk-about-humanity-yet-do-crap non-Linux!

                  Use Fedora already.

                  The problem with Arch/Gentoo is that's simply too much for Michael to integrate and maintain, its a DIY.
                  Fedora has bleeding edge and is maintained by professionals. So, that you can expect it to present the raw potential of bleeding edge Linux without much fumbling and without bugs of original distro-only projects.




                  You are confusing something! Michael is NOT to measure your wife, but Linux technologies...!
                  While I agree with the idea of your post the main problem with using Fedora which Michael highlighted is that there's not an easy way to test daily builds, yes he could recompile the kernel and Mesa and such but that reduces repeatability and one thing he highlighted was liking XOrg-edgers and the daily kernel PPAs, and that Fedora Rawhide builds the packages in debug mode. This is the primary reason I voted for openSUSE over Fedora since openSUSE has the Open Build Service which if there aren't already repos for what he wants he can create his own and have it do the building for him and provide packages which can be easily tested in a repeatable fashion. That said Fedora would be okay and nice for tests of stable versions since it does stay up to date in terms of the core and has good package quality (Kernel 3.10 just got into Fedora 19).
                  Last edited by Luke_Wolf; 28 July 2013, 05:49 AM.

                  Comment


                  • Michael isn't going to listen to any of you, or me. He is going to benchmark what he wants to benchmark, and you are going to give him pageviews anyway. Quit being fucking weirdos and trolls, sit back, and enjoy.

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by LinuxGamer View Post
                      don't you know the next release of Ubuntu is going to be BSD
                      The way Canonical is behaving, and now with an MS-guy at the helm, I would be anything but surprised by such a move.

                      Comment

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