As per title, I am mind-blown by the speed and stability of NixOS on this “relic” in IT terms… On this machine i tested:

Distro Performance
Fedora MEGA slow
Ubuntu OKish
LDME Fast
Debian Fast
NixOS VERY Fast

And the best thing is that I can bring this config with me on any computer! Oh boy, I think i have fallen in love with NixOS

  • Mucki@feddit.org
    21·
    3 days ago

    Thank you. Will try NixOS on a desktop soon. Speed is also very much related to the kernel, so you may want to compare kernels, too. I.e. Debian standard, Liquorix, Debian realtime, MX AHS, etc. I figured the rt kernel generally performs best for non-dGPU systems. And also the WM: KDE is unbearable for me, really slow on old thinkpads, while with XFCE everything is blazing fast.

    • Atemu
      2·
      3 days ago

      The kernel is one of the least important components when it comes to performance.

      Kernel tweaks can eek out a couple percent here or there for your specific task (while likely regressing in others) but nothing really significant.

      FWIW though, we have lqx and rt variants in NixOS (though rt is mainline now with 6.12).

      • Mucki@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Generally yes.

        Here is two examples from my recent experience:

        • Run custom realtime software on rt and non-rt kernel: Huge difference when I look at milliseconds and latency.
        • I ran Minecraft recently on the standard and rt kernel, with realtime it performs much better (no dGPU)

        I will look into nixOS definitely. Last time I checked must have been 2018 hehe

        • Atemu
          2·
          2 days ago

          Right if you have applications with rt constraints, you’ll obviously need a rt-capable OS but that’s more a matter of it being available as a feature, rather than being performant enough.

    • LoucypherOP
      1·
      3 days ago

      You’re right I got the latest and greatest kernel and that surely plays a factor