Benchmark (Phoronix): FreeBSD 9.0-RC2 vs. Oracle Linux 6.1 Server

[Adrian Chadd]

On 15 December 2011 06:49, Tony McC <afmcc at btinternet.com> wrote:
> I suggest always ignoring benchmarks. They are like reading the
> astrology column in a tabloid newspaper.  Instead, try FreeBSD for your
> work.  Is it fast enough?  Surely that is all you need to know. FreeBSD
> is quite fast enough for my needs and I am simply more productive using
> it than when I use any other operating system.  That is partly to do
> with my familiarity with my setup, which I have customised the way I
> want.  That is something that no benchmark can allow for.

You can't ignore benchmarks because:

* people read them;
* media link to them;
* they have pretty pictures.

These are all very important things. If all we do is talk on a mailing
list and never write public articles of our own, if we never push out
our message or work with groups like phronix to dig into the WHY,
we're going to be stuck looking bad. It doesn't matter if we aren't
bad, we still look bad.

It's PR and marketing 101. :)

This discussion with Michael @ Phronix is very helpful. Michael, are
you willing to help dig into why this is the case, and possibly write
a followup article or two about it?
I believe Stefan's response looking at what the benchmarks actually do
is worthwhile. I wonder if there's a way to get FreeBSD to behave the
same at least for comparison, so you can publish what the underlying
differences are due to and what relevance they have in the real world.

To everyone else (including Jeremy) - don't be afraid to publish and
be wrong. You invite discussion and further research that way. Just
don't act like a self-absorbed asshat.

Everyone benefits. :)


Adrian