System76's Pop!_OS Is Exploring Intel's Clear Linux Performance/Power Optimizations

[loganj]

but does clear linux still works on ryzen. i just tried to install it and it freeze. something about kvm and cpu without MWAIT support plus a few more debug logs and thats it.

[carewolf]

I think most distros would have significant boost to performance if they dropped support for CPUs without SSE4.1. There are many loops that autovectorize very nicely with -O3, but only if they have shuffle from SSSE3, and if they do integer multiplications SSE4.1 (before that SSE only have 16bit integer multiplication).

[Vistaus]

Haha do they not like System 76? I don't really ever reference them for anything (or use Ubuntu) so I'm not sure what they have to say.

A lot of people in the comments on OMG! Ubuntu dislike most Linux computers (including the ones from System76) because they're always complaining/nitpicking on the hardware, like "too expensive", "too plasticcy", "underpowered hardware", "battery life seems bad", "I can build this myself for a much lower price", "I don't trust hardware from country XYZ", etc., etc. They always find that there's something wrong with it. You know, kinda like when Phoronix posts an article about GNOME or systemd and the people in the comments go crazy about how bad they are and all of the things that are wrong with them lol.

[schmidtbag]

Shhhh, don't let the folks over at OMG! Ubuntu here you! ;-)

Haha do they not like System 76? I don't really ever reference them for anything (or use Ubuntu) so I'm not sure what they have to say.

Depends. Lenovo also has an AMD Thinkpad line-up but (at least here in Europe) they're using older AMD CPU's so it's comparable to what you're currently using. So System76, unlike Lenovo, would need to buy the newest, or at least more recent AMD CPU's for it to be an upgrade for you.

Yeah, if I were to get an AMD-based laptop, it would have to be Ryzen based. Unfortunately, it seems most Ryzen-based laptops (from any brand) only come with single-channel memory, which I may as well pass up on.

[Vistaus]

I'd gladly pay a little extra for System76 [...]

Shhhh, don't let the folks over at OMG! Ubuntu here you! ;-)

If they offered an ARM or AMD system, at least then there would be some advantage vs what I have now (where ARM would offer much better battery life, and AMD would offer better graphics performance).

Depends. Lenovo also has an AMD Thinkpad line-up but (at least here in Europe) they're using older AMD CPU's so it's comparable to what you're currently using. So System76, unlike Lenovo, would need to buy the newest, or at least more recent AMD CPU's for it to be an upgrade for you.

[Vistaus]

System76 is in an interesting position here. Traditionally OS vendors have been decoupled from the hardware vendors, and OS vendors had to ship an OS that worked everywhere rather than optimize it for specific hardware.

System76 is in a unique position where they know exactly what kind of hardware their OS is shipping on, and it's always modern CPUs. So they don't even need function multi-versioning - they could simply compile all the packages with AVX2 support a-la Gentoo and call it a day. And it would be one heck of a performance win.

Solus also uses Clear Linux's Intel optimizations, so Pop!_OS is not really in an "interesting position" here. Unless you're talking about the fact that they also sell hardware, but then it's still not "interesting" 'cause there are still companies bundling that, like Apple with their products, MS with the Surface line-up, etc.

[schmidtbag]

I'd gladly pay a little extra for System76, but the problem really comes down to them not offering something I want/need. In terms of performance, my current crappy Lenovo laptop with a Haswell i3 still performs great; it only bogs down on pages filled with animated ads. The build quality, display, speakers, and battery life are really the only things I especially dislike about it (and even then, the display is tolerable). When it comes to mobile CPUs, Intel hasn't improved much (in terms of performance-per-watt, graphics, or IPC) since Haswell. So, it's a little difficult for me to justify buying a somewhat expensive new platform that won't make a major difference in performance, even though the rest of the experience would be significantly improved.
If they offered an ARM or AMD system, at least then there would be some advantage vs what I have now (where ARM would offer much better battery life, and AMD would offer better graphics performance).

[Danielsan]

I still continue to consider Ubuntu a wrong choice (ever), they provided a firmware upgrade that I was unable to apply because I am using Debian. They said me that they can't work on several distros at the same time so I would better to uninstall Debian, install Ubuntu or POP_OS applying the upgrade and then reinstalling Debian.
A simple bash script would be preferable instead a package just for Ubuntu.

[Shnatsel]

System76 is in an interesting position here. Traditionally OS vendors have been decoupled from the hardware vendors, and OS vendors had to ship an OS that worked everywhere rather than optimize it for specific hardware.

System76 is in a unique position where they know exactly what kind of hardware their OS is shipping on, and it's always modern CPUs. So they don't even need function multi-versioning - they could simply compile all the packages with AVX2 support a-la Gentoo and call it a day. And it would be one heck of a performance win.

[Azrael5]

Linux powered by Intel should be good above all in the optimization of OS based on CPU's instructions.