Arch Linux, Clear Linux, Fedora Compete On The ASUS ROG Strix G15

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Arch Linux, Clear Linux, Fedora Compete On The ASUS ROG Strix G15

Following last month's look at the ASUS ROG Strix G15 AMD Advantage laptop with Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and some of the initial hurdles seen on Ubuntu, readers were curious about how well other Linux distributions fared compatibility wise or if offering better performance elsewhere. Here are some tests across Arch Linux, Clear Linux, Fedora Workstation, and Ubuntu 21.04 for reference.

https://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=30414

[microcode]

So in this case it seems like a Fresher Ingredients, Fresher Pizza type of thing.

[bug77]

When it comes to compatibility, each tested distribution worked fine when going through all available updates and getting to Linux 5.13 (or at least the latest Linux 5.12 point release on Clear Linux). The latest linux-firmware.git is also necessary if not shipped by the distribution in order to have working WiFi.

In other words, besides Arch, no other distro worked out of the box.
This would be unacceptable in the Windows land, but considering this is Linux on laptop, the situation is night and day compared to what it was like 5 years ago.

[MastaG]

Still laptop vendors should send in their patches way more sooner.

[bug77]

Still laptop vendors should send in their patches way more sooner.

I'm just glad OEM components are no longer prevented from working on Linux because Asus or Toshiba decided to "brand" them.
But yes, there's room for improvement, that's what I was hinting at above.

[david-nk]

It's frustrating that after several years, Clear Linux is still ahead of the rest.
Why isn't upstream incorporating Intel's changes?

[smartalgorithm]

and where is the OpenSUSE Tumbleweed? 🤐

[andyprough]

I'm surprised Clear didn't do a lot better. Those are three of the consistently worst performing distros that you put it up against. You used to get really strong results from Debian, but it seems like you've stopped testing it in these multi-distro competitions.

[jrch2k8]

https://www.phoronix.com/forums/foru...ernels-michael

[MadCatX]

It's frustrating that after several years, Clear Linux is still ahead of the rest.
Why isn't upstream incorporating Intel's changes?

As I recall Clear Linux used to be miles ahead of other distros. Now it pulls ahead only in a few specific tasks and even then the difference is usually not that great. My understanding is that not all of the performance tweaks used by Clear Linux are usable in a generic distro that is supposed to work everywhere. Clear may also be using some experimental patches that are not ready for upstream yet...