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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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A noticeable difference in kernels? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have the following kernels installed:

linux-zen (Zen)
linux-rt (RealTime)
linux-hardened (Security Hardened)
linux-lts (Long Term Support)
linux-tr-lts (Realtime LTS)

When I boot up, I try the different kernels from time to time just to see if anything interesting happens. It never does.

My question: How do I actually physically notice the difference between these kernels? If I use RT, does Firefox spawn quicker (in my testing, no, not really)?

What are some use cases when I can really see the difference in these kernels?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

From what I recall the completely fair scheduler (CFS) used by default on most Linux systems has a lower average latency than the RT kernel. The RT kernel just gives you more consistency, hence the CFS having lower latency “on average”

So honestly for opening Firefox it’ll probably depends more on your SSD data rate, but in theory it’ll open faster on a “regular” distribution most of the time.

Real time is good for things like audio processing where having better guarantees that a process will get its share of the CPU is a benefit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Here is a nice video that gives you an easy to grasp intuition about durations of different operations and access of components of a computer (Cache vs RAM vs SSD vs HDD etc.)

I find it illustrates well why a fester drive or even faster RAM (unless there is a different bottleneck) would give you a more noticable performance uplift than a different Kernel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpaQrzoDW2I