Linux Kernel Benchmarks, 2.6.24-2.6.29
Ashmash writes "Phoronix has posted benchmarks of the Linux kernel from versions 2.6.24 to 2.6.29. They ran a number of desktop benchmarks from the Phoronix Test Suite on each of the six kernels on an Ubuntu host with an Intel Core 2 processor. The points they make with the new Linux 2.6.29 kernel are 1. there's a regression with 7-Zip compression 2. OpenSSL has improved significantly 3. a regression drastically impacting the SQLite performance has been fixed 4. the OpenMP GraphicsMagick performance is phenomenally better with this new kernel. In all of their other tests, the kernel performance was the roughly the same."
Comparison to OS X purely at the kernel level ? I'd prefer to see real-world benchmarks (a contentious area in itself..) across a range of operating systems, using identical hardware, but it would only spark endless debate that the methodology favoured one OS over another. Personally, I use all 3 and each has its pros and cons : such a benchmark would have to make a pretty compelling case for me to abandon any of my currently installed operating systems.