macOS 10.12.5 vs. Ubuntu 17.04 vs. Clear Linux On A Mac Mini

In common test-cases that aren't too demanding, it largely comes down to close performance, assuming Clang is competing well with GCC. For this testing, the stock compilers on each OS was used considering it's one of the choices made by the operating system vendors.

In some workloads though, Clang still noticeably lags behind GCC.

Beyond the choice of compilers, some OS vendors take things a step further like with Clear Linux employing a number of additional default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS for greater out-of-the-box performance.

macOS 10.12.5 still manages to win in some of the tests.