Fastest Linux Distros

Howdy,

I'm amazed when I read on other Linux forums that Linux Mint whatever is the fastest Linux Distro around.

I use several different Linux Distros and I'll give you that Linux Mint is one of the several good running Linux Distros but it sure isn't the fastest Linux Distro that I"m using.

The two fastest Linux Distros I'm using are Puppy (tahrpup) and antiX-15.1 Killah P .

What are your thoughts on the fastest Linux Distros?

I guess it also depends on your PC specs.

I think Puppy type distros are the fastest because they run from ram.

I run Ubuntu on an I5 with 8GiB of ram from SSD, I also run Puppy on the same machine and TBH they both run blazingly fast.

Running Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon here....8GB Ram(DDR4) on an SSD....this thing is so quick and intuitive,  it posts before i think to hit the 'post' button......

Seriously..?....this is an amazingly hard comparison to make....as Nick said it will also depend on the assortment of PC specs...and other variables such as what apps are installed, ect etc

I choose the 'speed' of Linux Mint because it comes with the ability to easily store and have at hand an incredible array of STABLE  addons/apps

Too many of the puppy distros remind me of Windows....in my brief experience there has always been something needing fixing/adjusting etc etc....whereas with Mint it just works. Period.

With Mint the only thing that will 'break' it....is the idiot sitting in the chair....otherwise, 25 + tabs open and running like a dream

Edited by Condobloke, 14 August 2016 - 04:56 AM.

 

Too many of the puppy distros remind me of Windows

OMG if I was a moderator I would ban you for that....... Oh hang on I am LOL, just kidding.

But.

You are right, most Puppies remind me of Windows 98, 2000, and some of XP, I guess its why I like Ubuntu so much.

 

Seriously..?....this is an amazingly hard comparison to make....as Nick said it will also depend on the assortment of PC specs...and other variables such as what apps are installed, ect etc

 

 

I agree this is an amazingly hard comparison to make because there is so much different hardware old and new.

All of my Linux computers are others old discards running older processors from Pentium Ds 820 / 945 dual cores to core 2 Duo dual core / AMD processors are dual core / quad core.

Amount of memory 3.0 GB to 4.0 GB DDR2.

Ubuntu 14.04 and Linux Mint 17.1 on my old hardware both run equally fast and I notice no difference between the two distros.

Puppy (tahrpup) is the only Puppy Distro I use and it runs amazingly fast as also antiX-15.1 Killah P .

All of my Linux Distros on any of my hardware have always run out of the box without any issues and do have all software that I will need although I do prefer certain software and install it.

Puppy and antix remind me of Windows 98 which is cool because I prefer a plain no frills desktop.

I like Linux and the option it gives me to keep my old hardware alive for my simple computer needs.

Always appreciate others opinions.

 

 

 

You are right, most Puppies remind me of Windows 98, 2000, and some of XP, I guess its why I like Ubuntu so much.

 

That is one of the things I find cool about them.

I have always liked Ubuntu just for the Unity desktop because it is different.

Edited by vacuum-tube, 14 August 2016 - 05:07 AM.

I guess I've gotta be the 'fly in the ointment' here..!

Yes, Linux Mint is a very good distro, no denying that.....for people who just want to get on and do stuff. At that, it absolutely excels. But, like all the 'buntu-based distros, the continuous slew of updates always broke things on my old Compaq.

(And no, I have no intentions of upgrading to a newer machine any time soon...)

I've always been a natural-born 'tinkerer'. Which is why I love Linux so much. And no, Puppy doesn't have all the 'smoothness' of many of the most popular distros. Yes, it does need a lot of stuff to be set-up the way you want it to run.....but it only needs doing once. And once only.

Most of you have, I guess, by now seen some of my customized desktops. I probably spend as much time on them as I do in setting Puppy itself up. But I do what I do because I enjoy it.

For a 12-year old machine, running on DDR1 RAM, Pup beats everything else hands down. On this hardware, it absolutely screams. It may look like Windows to some of you here.....but, like Windows, it has wizards galore, and tooltips everywhere you look. Which is, I think, why we attract so many ex-XP refugees; it seems familiar. For many people, that very 'familiarity' makes all the difference. And, like any Linux distro, you can make it look anyway you want it to.....

(Say after me; 'All hail BK.....'      ) 

I don't need, much less want, to look anywhere else..!    

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 14 August 2016 - 02:34 PM.

The two fastest Linux Distros I'm using are Puppy (tahrpup) and antiX-15.1 Killah P .

 

(Say after me; 'All hail BK.....'      ) 

And he's an Aussie ... Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi (sorry, the Olympics are on)

I'll have a look around my stable and come back with an idea or 6.

Just off the top of my head - Vinux 5.0 for the Visually Challenged, which is based on Ubuntu 14.04 Unity (but I use the MATE DE more often than not):

From selection at Grub to fully operational takes 29 seconds, with 6 seconds to shutdown, everything in between (in session) is lightning fast.

Slowest part of the 29-second startup is the time it takes the nut behind the wheel to type in his password.

Wizard

If members are willing to run some tests and post times here it would be great.

Wizard

You have some 30 distros installed? How about running some tests and posting the results please.

These sorts of threads are encouraged.

 

I'll have a look around my stable and come back with an idea or 6.

Hence the above?

I hesitate to say 30+ all the time, sounds like I'm bragging, whereas in truth I am a just a junkie for Linux.

MX-15 that Bmike1 put me onto ages ago (as MX-14), along with AntiX-14 ... very fast. I have AntiX-16 on now, but Al has had more use of it, I suspect.

I have yet to be successful with an install of the Phoronix Suite for benchmarking purposes, but I'll see what I can come up with.

Wiz

Crikey ... Nimbin Boy's a Mod for 5 minutes and he's setting me jobs ... grumble grumble grumble, shuffles off

The specs below return a boot up time (from off) of 25 seconds.....a shut down time of 8 seconds

free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           7663        1130        5579         279         954        6188
Swap:          7864           0        7864
(ddr4 ram)

 inxi -Fx
System:    Host: brian-desktop Kernel: 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.3.1)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.0.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.1)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   Mobo: ASRock model: B150M Pro4
           Bios: American Megatrends v: P1.60 date: 11/09/2015
CPU:       Dual core Intel Pentium G4400 (-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 13248
           clock speeds: max: 3300 MHz 1: 799 MHz 2: 799 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Device 1902 bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1440x900@59.89hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 510 (Skylake GT1)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Z Cinéma driver: USB-Audio
           Card-2 Logitech driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 001-003
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-21-generic
Network:   Card: Intel Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V
           driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k bus-ID: 00:1f.6
           IF: enp0s31f6 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full
           mac: d0:50:99:9e:c1:3c
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 670.2GB (25.6% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_650 size: 120.0GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: ST3250820AS size: 250.1GB
           ID-3: /dev/sdc model: ST3300822AS size: 300.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 103G used: 27G (27%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.25GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 25.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 173 Uptime: 5 min Memory: 1149.9/7663.9MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.421) inxi: 2.2.35
brian@brian-desktop ~ $
 

Nice - gonna have to update your siggy to 18.06 Bro'. Lol.

I think Nick had one once that used to fire up in 17 seconds, is that so Nick or am I delirious (wait for it)?

Wizard

I guess I've gotta be the 'fly in the ointment' here..!

 

Yes, Linux Mint is a very good distro, no denying that.....for people who just want to get on and do stuff. At that, it absolutely excels. But, like all the 'buntu-based distros, the continuous slew of updates always broke things on my old Compaq.

 

(And no, I have no intentions of upgrading to a newer machine any time soon...)

 

I've always been a natural-born 'tinkerer'. Which is why I love Linux so much. And no, Puppy doesn't have all the 'smoothness' of many of the most popular distros. Yes, it does need a lot of stuff to be set-up the way you want it to run.....but it only needs doing once. And once only.

 

Most of you have, I guess, by now seen some of my customized desktops. I probably spend as much time on them as I do in setting Puppy itself up. But I do what I do because I enjoy it.

 

For a 12-year old machine, running on DDR1 RAM, Pup beats everything else hands down. On this hardware, it absolutely screams. It may look like Windows to some of you here.....but, like Windows, it has wizards galore, and tooltips everywhere you look. Which is, I think, why we attract so many ex-XP refugees; it seems familiar. For many people, that very 'familiarity' makes all the difference. And, like any Linux distro, you can make it look anyway you want it to.....

 

(Say after me; 'All hail BK.....'      ) 

 

I don't need, much less want, to look anywhere else..!    

 

 

Mike. 

(Say after me; 'All hail BK.....'      ) 

I with you Mike why change to newer hardware when what you already have does what is needed.

I to enjoy keeping my old hardware alive and building a new desktop in my case to run the web just isn't going to gain anything for what I use my computer for.

Lots of older hardware still around that is very usable and can be had for almost nothing.

Many other choices with Linux if the mainstream ones won't run on my hardware.

Yeah Ubuntu 14.04 is OK and it was my first Linux Distro so I keep it until it is no longer supported.

I like antix-15.1 Killah P  a no nonsense light weight little distro that seems to run on anything without problems and is very fast.

Now Puppy (tahrpup) that is my sport Linux Distro as it just runs and does everything right out of the box at the blink of an eye.

The wife uses Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon for the exact reason you stated in your post Mike and I'm glad she is finally away from Windows.

I'm just not impressed with Ubuntu 16.04 and Linux Mint 18 they offer nothing I don't already have with the Linux Distos I'm using now and they don't like some of my older hardware.

Puppy (tahrpup) and antix-15.1 Killah P are my fastest Linux Distros for hardware I'm running them on.

Boot up times and shutdown times aren't a concern to me, how the computer preforms when in use is what really matters.

----------------------------

Found this in trash pile on big trash day replaced power supply fan installed Ubuntu 14.04 runs great. Boot up and shut down times are equal to Condobloke's times.

XPS-200:~$  free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3028       1488       1540          5         82        841
-/+ buffers/cache:        564       2464
Swap:         3068          0       3068

----------------------------

Inxi -Fx

System:    Host: Dell-XPS-200 Kernel: 3.13.0-93-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.4) Desktop: Gnome Distro: Ubuntu 14.04 trusty
Machine:   System: Dell product: Dell DXC051
           Mobo: Dell model: 0DD431 Bios: Dell version: A03 date: 10/28/2005
CPU:       Dual core Intel Pentium D CPU (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3) bmips: 11172.1
           Clock Speeds: 1: 2793.033 MHz 2: 2793.033 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GT216 [GeForce 210] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau) Resolution: 1280x720@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce 210/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.96 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA GT216 HDMI Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-93-generic
Network:   Card: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family LAN Controller driver: e100 ver: 3.5.24-k2-NAPI port: ccc0 bus-ID: 03:08.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:12:3f:b1:6a:ab
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 80.0GB (9.7% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST380819AS size: 80.0GB
Partition: ID: / size: 71G used: 7.3G (11%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 3.22GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 165 Uptime: 6:19 Memory: 879.2/3028.3MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11) inxi: 1.9.17
 

Edited by vacuum-tube, 14 August 2016 - 10:38 PM.

If members are willing to run some tests and post times here it would be great.

 

Is System Test app that is in Ubuntu 14.04 what one would use to do the testing for the results you are referring to or do I need to search the software center for a benchmark test app.