MySQL performance on free *nixes
Newsforge has an article benchmarking MySQL on Linux (2.4 and 2.6), NetBSD 2, OpenBSD 3.6, Solaris 10, and FreeBSD (4.11 and 5.3 with various threading models). Conclusion: Linux (both 2.4 and 2.6) is in first place, with Solaris 10 a close second, and various FreeBSD’s (except for 4.11 with libc_r thread model) in fairly distant third. NetBSD actually beats beats Linux on some single-CPU benchmarks, but it falls flat on its face whenever multiple CPU’s or lots of I/O are involved (which make sense considering that NetBSD still uses a single massive lock in the classical Unix tradition, while Linux has been gradually dismantling its big lock for the past 8 years).