- Distributions customize the kernel for their use, and do a very good job of it
- The Linux kernel can be custom built by the end user or by the distro maintainer
- In my experience the kernel is already highly optimized and any successful attempts to customize the kernel will result in an improvement in one area while other areas will see a regression.
- Canonical specifies what they offer
- Manjaro is amazing in how they let the user select a kernel
- Phoronix performance tests on XanMod, Liquorix, and default kernels, focused on throughput and not on system responsiveness
- Stable = The latest stable kernel
- LTS = The latest long term support kernel
- Hardened = Stable with upstream security patches
- Low-Latency = Not quite real-time but does a good job making the system more responsive
- Real-Time = Guaranteed improvement and jitter on service time
- Xanmod - stable, responsive and smooth desktop experience.
- Zen Kernel
- tuned for performance
- aimed at improving performance of desktops at the cost of throughput and power usage
- low latency and high-frequency scheduling.
- Liquorix
- desktop, multimedia, and gaming workloads.
- Liquorix was created as a way for desktop Debian users to run a low-latency, desktop-optimized kernel based on the Zen kernel sources.
- Info
- linux-ck - CPU-specific & optimized linux-ck packages for Arch Linux