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Linux will most likely beat macOS in performance on the same hardware due to it having better drivers/schedulers/filesystems and lower overhead. If you are usi

Linux will most likely beat macOS in performance on the same hardware due to it having better drivers/schedulers/filesystems and lower overhead. If you are using something like Docker on macOS that will also kill your performance even more.

lucasoshiro 2y ago
> Linux will most likely beat macOS in performance on the same hardware Not exactly, because since M series was introduced we only have Asahi, developed by reversing engineering Apple Silicon processors instead of using drivers of macOS that were developed by Apple for the hardware that they know how works. Apple Silicon processors have efficiency and performance cores, macOS scheduler was made to manage it. I don't know if Asahi handles them as different cores. But I must say, Asahi team is doing a great job.
- throwaway1194 2y ago
  I've seen some Asahi benchmarks and Linux beats macOS in some of them while it loses in some others. Asahi also supports the latest version of OpenGL and Vulkan was recently added, I can only imagine things will get even better.
  - lucasoshiro 2y ago
    > I can only imagine things will get even better. Me too. Their work is really impressive. But I don't think it is worth getting a MacBook for running Linux nowadays.
    - throwaway1194 2y ago
      > Me too. Their work is really impressive. It is indeed, I have a theory about why that is and I think it comes down to the people who work on it. Not saying that Apple doesn't have good engineering but people like Alyssa Rosenzweig are on another level. Also, the fact that Linux has supported ARM for years probably helps. > But I don't think it is worth getting a MacBook for running Linux nowadays. Why though? I probably wouldn't as well but I'm curious about what you have to say.
hpen 2y ago
Can someone say baseless speculation?
- throwaway1194 2y ago
  Far from baseless speculation, there are many things that Linux does just _right_ compared to anything else, unfortunately my time is limited to list all of them here. I will just say that one big advantage of Linux compared to other kernels is the fact that the same Linux kernel that your average Joe is running on their own machine, is the same kernel that CERN is running in their experiments. Improvements to any area of the kernel get upstreamed and sometimes those affect (and benefit) various setups other than the intended machine, this is mainly due to the nature of open source and shared codebase, Linus himself explains it here: https://youtu.be/MShbP3OpASA?t=1335 https://youtu.be/MShbP3OpASA?t=1335 https://youtu.be/MShbP3OpASA?t=2280 https://youtu.be/MShbP3OpASA?t=2280 I think this is more than what any company could ever dream of achieving, they might just lack the resources to do it.
  - hpen 2y ago
    I wanna preface by saying I'm a huge linux fan, but a couple things: 1. I'm not sure what kernel optimizations for CERN's x86 machine have to do with ARM Apple Silicon. I get that in abstract improvements "could" trickle down from that but once again without any performance benchmarks that is the definition of speculation. Yeah, improvements and bug fixes get upstreamed but not every algorithm is going to optimized for the architecture of Apple Silicon.
    - throwaway1194 2y ago
      > I get that in abstract improvements "could" trickle down from that but once again without any performance benchmarks that is the definition of speculation. Fair enough, I am not sure whether CPU schedulers are shared across architectures, I am also not aware of any recent benchmarks other than: https://www.phoronix.com/review/apple-m2-zen4-mobile https://www.phoronix.com/review/apple-m2-zen4-mobile Where I was going with my original statement/post is that I wouldn't be surprised to see Linux doing better in some benchmarks due to improvements in the kernel, there has been many recent developments such as io_uring[0], MGLRU, etc. that could make a difference compared to other systems. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-IWMbJXoLM&t=1004s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-IWMbJXoLM&t=1004s

lucasoshiro 2y ago

> Linux will most likely beat macOS in performance on the same hardware Not exactly, because since M series was introduced we only have Asahi, developed by reversing engineering Apple Silicon processors instead of using drivers of macOS that were developed by Apple for the hardware that they know how works. Apple Silicon processors have efficiency and performance cores, macOS scheduler was made to manage it. I don't know if Asahi handles them as different cores. But I must say, Asahi team is doing a great job.

throwaway1194 2y ago
I've seen some Asahi benchmarks and Linux beats macOS in some of them while it loses in some others. Asahi also supports the latest version of OpenGL and Vulkan was recently added, I can only imagine things will get even better.
- lucasoshiro 2y ago
  > I can only imagine things will get even better. Me too. Their work is really impressive. But I don't think it is worth getting a MacBook for running Linux nowadays.
  - throwaway1194 2y ago
    > Me too. Their work is really impressive. It is indeed, I have a theory about why that is and I think it comes down to the people who work on it. Not saying that Apple doesn't have good engineering but people like Alyssa Rosenzweig are on another level. Also, the fact that Linux has supported ARM for years probably helps. > But I don't think it is worth getting a MacBook for running Linux nowadays. Why though? I probably wouldn't as well but I'm curious about what you have to say.

hpen 2y ago

Can someone say baseless speculation?

throwaway1194 2y ago
Far from baseless speculation, there are many things that Linux does just _right_ compared to anything else, unfortunately my time is limited to list all of them here. I will just say that one big advantage of Linux compared to other kernels is the fact that the same Linux kernel that your average Joe is running on their own machine, is the same kernel that CERN is running in their experiments. Improvements to any area of the kernel get upstreamed and sometimes those affect (and benefit) various setups other than the intended machine, this is mainly due to the nature of open source and shared codebase, Linus himself explains it here: https://youtu.be/MShbP3OpASA?t=1335 https://youtu.be/MShbP3OpASA?t=1335 https://youtu.be/MShbP3OpASA?t=2280 https://youtu.be/MShbP3OpASA?t=2280 I think this is more than what any company could ever dream of achieving, they might just lack the resources to do it.
- hpen 2y ago
  I wanna preface by saying I'm a huge linux fan, but a couple things: 1. I'm not sure what kernel optimizations for CERN's x86 machine have to do with ARM Apple Silicon. I get that in abstract improvements "could" trickle down from that but once again without any performance benchmarks that is the definition of speculation. Yeah, improvements and bug fixes get upstreamed but not every algorithm is going to optimized for the architecture of Apple Silicon.
  - throwaway1194 2y ago
    > I get that in abstract improvements "could" trickle down from that but once again without any performance benchmarks that is the definition of speculation. Fair enough, I am not sure whether CPU schedulers are shared across architectures, I am also not aware of any recent benchmarks other than: https://www.phoronix.com/review/apple-m2-zen4-mobile https://www.phoronix.com/review/apple-m2-zen4-mobile Where I was going with my original statement/post is that I wouldn't be surprised to see Linux doing better in some benchmarks due to improvements in the kernel, there has been many recent developments such as io_uring[0], MGLRU, etc. that could make a difference compared to other systems. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-IWMbJXoLM&t=1004s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-IWMbJXoLM&t=1004s