Windows Server 2016 vs. FreeBSD 11.2 vs. 8 Linux Distributions Performance Benchmarks

First up was the basic SQLite embedded database test given the popularity/widespread use of the software. FreeBSD 11.2 with ZFS had a narrow first place finish while the slowest of the Linux distributions tested was Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Windows Server 2016 was coming right in the middle of the operating system bunch.

When it comes to 7-Zip compression, Clear Linux came out ahead of the other operating systems tested while Windows Server was noticeably slower in this multi-threaded benchmark.

Of the Linux distributions for compiling a default Linux x86_64 kernel build, Clear Linux was the fastest at just 25 seconds for this 80-thread server, albeit the slowest Linux distributions weren't far behind at 30 seconds.

With measuring the time needed to compress a file using Gzip, Clear Linux was again the fastest due to patches its carrying for threading. Windows Server 2016 via its Tar support tested within Cygwin comes in as much slower than the Linux distributions but not nearly as slow as FreeBSD 11.2 in this particular basic but common test case.

Running some audio conversion tests across the operating systems, Debian 9.4 managed a first place finish while Windows Server was slightly behind the Linux distributions with this FLAC audio encoding workload while FreeBSD 11.2 was in a distant last.