

FreeBSD 8.0 vs. Ubuntu 9.10 Benchmarks - lamnk
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=freebsd8_ubuntu910&num=1

======
a2tech
This article can not be trusted. The version of FreeBSD they use in the test
is in 'debug mode'. The speed of every critical system is impacted while debug
symbols are enabled. The fact the author fails to mention this critical fact
casts doubt over the veracity of the entire article.

~~~
aw3c2
Phoronix's "benchmarks" are notoriously useless.

~~~
Herring
Well benchmarks in general are rather useless. It's very rarely speed
determining choice of platform.

------
sophacles
I understand they were testing out of the box stuff, but I wish they had upped
to a newer gcc in the FreeBSD install, and recompiled some of those programs.
Id really like to get a feel for the actual differences between the OSes
without extra variales like compiler and 3rd part libs getting in the way.
Such a thing would really be kernel+libc comparisons then.

~~~
CrLf
Those differences that "get in the way" are actually relevant in the real
world, where people will use those systems as they are and not after upgrading
and recompiling core components.

------
oliveoil
What is "John The Ripper v1.7.3.1" test? I'd like to see "Firefox startup"
test and similar..

~~~
tptacek
John The Ripper is the most famous password cracker in the world, presumably
in the benchmark because it's a good example of a heavily optimized compute-
bound application.

~~~
gjm11
Which is to say, just the sort of application for which OS differences are
unlikely to matter much. (Compared with, say, what compiler happened to be
used to build the application, or what else was running on the mcahine at the
same time.)

Unfortunately, many of the benchmarks they used seem to be of this sort. Not
that it matters much, since the author of the article offered basically no
analysis or explanation of any of the results, just a series of barcharts,
each followed by a single paragraph trying to find a superficially different
way of paraphrasing the numbers in the barchart.

~~~
tptacek
Meh. Scheduler? I don't know. I clicked this link by accident, saw "John the
Ripper", and just decided to clear up what JtR was and how it could be a
benchmark program. I think OS benchmarks are themselves kind of silly.

~~~
gjm11
For the avoidance of doubt, I wasn't in the least criticizing _you_. Only
Phoronix and their not=obviously-helpful benchmarking and reporting practices.

------
there
[http://www.phoronix.com/data/img/results/freebsd8_ubuntu910/...](http://www.phoronix.com/data/img/results/freebsd8_ubuntu910/17.png)

how is that even usable on linux?

~~~
spamizbad
You don't use ext4; problem solved.

~~~
tamas
Or you use barrier=0 mount option for your ext4.

------
cdfrey
"With these two popular free software operating systems.."

On what planet is FreeBSD popular?

