6-Way End-Of-2013 Linux Benchmarks
As some extra weekend benchmarks as we near the end of 2013, here are test results when comparing Debian GNU/Linux 7.2, Ubuntu 14.04 in its current development state, Fedora 20, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 Beta 1, and openSUSE 13.1.
From an Intel Core i7 3960X "Sandy Bridge" Extreme Edition system with six CPU cores plus Hyper Threading, 8GB of RAM, 64GB OCZ Vertex SSD, and Radeon HD 4870 graphics, I conducted some enterprise-focused Linux distribution benchmarks earlier in the month.
The hardware and its settings were maintained the same throughout all testing (e.g. ignore the CPU frequency differences in the system tables due to different CPUfreq drivers being used, etc) and all distributions were tested with their stock settings and packages.
All benchmarking on Debian 7.2, Ubuntu 14.04, Fedora 20, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 Beta 1, and openSUSE 13.1 was handled via the Phoronix Test Suite software. The Phoronix Test Suite can be used on nearly every modern Linux distribution but also all major BSD operating systems, OS X, Solaris, and to some extent Windows. The Phoronix Test Suite is open-source and provides all the tools you need for automated end-to-end performance benchmarking and other regression testing and analytics features.