The Most Popular Open-Source Linux Benchmarks

With OpenBenchmarking.org having turned four years old this month, here's a look at the most used test profiles over the past four years.

Besides OpenBenchmarking.org being home to the largest repository of structured, open-source test data, OpenBenchmarking.org serves as the collective repository of test profiles and test suites used by the Phoronix Test Suite. With the launch of OpenBenchmarking.org four years ago and Phoronix Test Suite 3.0, the tests/suites moved from being part of the Phoronix Test Suite package to being "in the cloud" on OpenBenchmarking.org so that new and updated tests can be downloaded and updated in real-time rather than always having to upgrade the Phoronix Test Suite for new/updated tests.

With the Phoronix Test Suite downloading these tests on-demand, it's easy to look at what tests are being used most commonly by the community of Phoronix Test Suite users that range from computer hobbyists to Fortune 100 companies running large Phoronix Test Suite deployments via Phoromatic.

The top ten most used test profiles over the past four years include:

Timed Apache Compilation - This test times how long it takes to build the Apache HTTP Server.

CacheBench - This is a performance test of CacheBench, which is part of LLCbench.

C-Ray - This is a test of C-Ray, a simple raytracer designed to test the floating-point CPU performance.

Gzip Compression - This test measures the time needed to compress a file using Gzip compression.

Bork File Encryption - Bork is a small, cross-platform file encryption utility.

7-Zip Compression - This is a test of 7-Zip using p7zip with its integrated benchmark feature.

Timed M-Player Compilation - This test times how long it takes to build the MPlayer media player program.

Dbench - Dbench is a benchmark designed by the Samba project as a free alternative to netbench, but dbench contains only file-system calls for testing the disk performance.

LZMA Compression - This test measures the time needed to compress a file using LZMA compression.

RAMSpeed SMP - This benchmark tests the system memory (RAM) performance.

You can find all of the official test profiles that can be seamlessly run via the Phoronix Test Suite via the OpenBenchmarking.org listing. Over the past four years there's been more than 32 million test profile downloads! While the Phoronix Test Suite / OpenBenchmarking.org is most often associated with Linux, the open-source software does also run on BSD, OS X, Solaris, and even Windows and GNU Hurd.