Keep an eye on these versions – Comparing the performance of Oracle Linux 7 vs Oracle Linux 8 using the Phoronix Test Suite

The Phoronix Test Suite (PTS)[1] is a comprehensive testing and benchmarking platform for assessing the performance of Linux systems. In this context, while comparing the performance of Oracle Linux 7 (OL7) and Oracle Linux 8 (OL8), where both are using the same kernel version, we noticed substantial performance deltas ranging up to 30% between the two. To investigate these deltas, we performed detailed analysis to identify the reasons. The resulting analysis has helped us to be cognizant of the importance of tool-chain versions and builds when making performance comparisions.