What is the fastest Linux distro?

[Gat Pelsinger]

I don't believe Google results, and I am asking this in a more technical way. What is the fastest Linux distro? Not necessarily the lightest but these both terms are inter-related. So that would be a distro that uses a different init system than Systemd. I have only tried Runit, and it is faster than Systemd, but is there anything even faster? That distro could be using a more optimized config for the Kernel compilation, and maybe booting up with a non compressed Kernel? Does such a distro exist?

 

This is only for experimental purposes, and I would typically never switch to an obscure distro than the main line ones.

[Nayr438]

Assuming you don't have a NVIDIA GPU, Try Alpine it's a minimal distro that uses OpenRC and is built on musl libc and busybox.

Edited April 29 by Nayr438

[CosmicEmotion]

In my experience the fastest one is CachyOS. And Falkon the fastest browser.

[The Hope]

I would say Calculate Linux, Devuan and Clear Linux have the fastest system startup times of all the Linux systems. (on modern hardware)

 

CPU performance will depend on the specific app or game, and many other factors.

[Sauron]

On 4/29/2024 at 2:16 PM, Gat Pelsinger said:

I don't believe Google results, and I am asking this in a more technical way. What is the fastest Linux distro? Not necessarily the lightest but these both terms are inter-related. So that would be a distro that uses a different init system than Systemd. I have only tried Runit, and it is faster than Systemd, but is there anything even faster? That distro could be using a more optimized config for the Kernel compilation, and maybe booting up with a non compressed Kernel? Does such a distro exist?

 

This is only for experimental purposes, and I would typically never switch to an obscure distro than the main line ones.

Systemd is not slower than any other init system. If configured incorrectly, or when running too many useless startup services, it can seem slow, but at its core it's about as fast as it gets.

 

As mentioned, one of the most performance oriented distributions is clear linux and unsurprisingly it uses systemd.

[10leej]

On 4/29/2024 at 8:16 AM, Gat Pelsinger said:

I don't believe Google results, and I am asking this in a more technical way. What is the fastest Linux distro? Not necessarily the lightest but these both terms are inter-related. So that would be a distro that uses a different init system than Systemd. I have only tried Runit, and it is faster than Systemd, but is there anything even faster? That distro could be using a more optimized config for the Kernel compilation, and maybe booting up with a non compressed Kernel? Does such a distro exist?

 

This is only for experimental purposes, and I would typically never switch to an obscure distro than the main line ones.

I question why the performance matters? I can make any distro faster than anything anyone here would list just you like can.

Why because it open source software that I can compile myself using flags optimized for my specific hardware.

That doesn't mean I want to. Then again I do use Gentoo.

[Ultraforce]

I believe technically Gentoo or an LFS (Linux From Scratch) might be the fastest?

[Brian McKee]

It'd help if we knew your use case. Fastest at what? Bootup? Rendering? GPU tasks? Computing Pi? Opening Firefox? Making you coffee?

[goatedpenguin]

On 4/29/2024 at 5:16 AM, Gat Pelsinger said:

I don't believe Google results, and I am asking this in a more technical way. What is the fastest Linux distro? Not necessarily the lightest but these both terms are inter-related. So that would be a distro that uses a different init system than Systemd. I have only tried Runit, and it is faster than Systemd, but is there anything even faster? That distro could be using a more optimized config for the Kernel compilation, and maybe booting up with a non compressed Kernel? Does such a distro exist?

 

This is only for experimental purposes, and I would typically never switch to an obscure distro than the main line ones.

If you want everything tailored for your machine then gentoo linux is the obvious choice. You can try out artix linux which is systemd-less arch. If you really really want everything to be done the way you want it to be done as I have seen from your other posts then LFS is the answer. Do note when installing/making LFS you should be VERY comfortable in how linux works(ie subsystems the kernel schedulers and much more). Its a good challenge and you will really learn how linux works instead of "learning how linux works by doing something like installing arch manually etc." Here is the wiki if you want to get a feel/taste for LFS: https://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/

 

Do note that LFS does not come with a package manager and you have to make it yourself! 

[goatedpenguin]

On 5/1/2024 at 10:17 AM, Sauron said:

Systemd is not slower than any other init system.

Debatable. 

[Ralphred]

On 5/4/2024 at 1:28 AM, goatedpenguin said:

Debatable. 

From a purely "intuitive" point of view, S6 or runit should be quickest as there is no "dynamic" scripting going on - you do those "calculations" and store them as a static boot process, but you can do the same (almost) by careful dependency management in config files and parallel startup with others, forcing "the optimal solution" to be simple to find.

[goatedpenguin]

13 hours ago, Ralphred said:

From a purely "intuitive" point of view, S6 or runit should be quickest as there is no "dynamic" scripting going on - you do those "calculations" and store them as a static boot process, but you can do the same (almost) by careful dependency management in config files and parallel startup with others, forcing "the optimal solution" to be simple to find.

Since systemd is ass and init is better can you explain to me what is the difference between openrc(and other init systems) vs vanilla init? 

[thiccbeard4linux]

A bit unusual, but tinycore would be my vote.

[Gat Pelsinger]

3 hours ago, thiccbeard4linux said:

A bit unusual, but tinycore would be my vote.

Is that actually usable though?

[Ralphred]

15 hours ago, goatedpenguin said:

can you explain to me what is the difference

So, the reason systemd was lauded as "fast" is because all the dependency calculations and service start-up is done as a function of compiled code and not scripted.

What this ignores is that systems like runit and S6 have a "static dependency tree" pre-configured essentially sidestepping a lot of "spent time" at boot.

One of the limitations with systemd is that you are tied to the "in built functionality", so anything that goes slightly off piste means building two services, one that does the "checking you would do naturally" within svinit scripts, then one that depends on it to run the actual service. I think there are some legs in not using udev too, but would have to read up on it.

 

Whilst @Gat Pelsinger is trying to make a system boot fast, there are many layers of optimisation that can be gone through, but each requires a new level of understanding of the underlying system, and steps to remove "dynamic" solutions* to his known static system.

 

*A small list would include

1. No bootloader
2. No initrd
3. Choice of compiler and glibc
4. Module less kernel (plus other kernel tweaks)
5. Pre-configured init system
6. back-grounding of non-essential services

 

@Gat Pelsinger, mate short of going full basement dweller and installing LFS, just swallow the time cost and install Gentoo. It's "not really a distro" just a set of tools for "building your own OS", it will give you luxury of a working system whilst you work to understand the tweaks you can make to speed things up (a lot of which are OoTB options). You've got a machine capable of the heavy lifting in the long term, you can run up a binhost or "compiler helper" in a VM to simplify updates etc.

[Thomas4]

There's also Linux From Scratch, where you build everything.