Benchmark sparks
Benchmark sparks
“Figures don’t lie, but liars figure,” they used to say back in my engineering days. You can be scrupulously careful about quoting numbers accurately and still be blowing smoke at people if you are choosy about which numbers you choose to report. I've been thinking about this problem recently because it always comes to mind in the lead-up to a US election.
Dear Linux Pro Reader,
"Figures don't lie, but liars figure," they used to say back in my engineering days. You can be scrupulously careful about quoting numbers accurately and still be blowing smoke at people if you are choosy about which numbers you choose to report. I've been thinking about this problem recently because it always comes to mind in the lead-up to a US election. At this writing, two candidates are both claiming they are ahead in the race and quoting different polls and surveys. To each, the other's polls and surveys don't even exist – their world does not have room for information that conflicts with their story.
This same phenomenon was also in the High Tech news this month, when AMD posted a video on YouTube criticizing Intel's use of the SYSmark benchmarking tool for measuring PC performance. SYSmark shows the latest Intel processors outperforming AMD equivalents by a large margin. In the video, AMD spokesmen John Hampton and Tony Salinas argued that the alternative PCMark 8 benchmark shows a much more competitive race between the Intel and AMD chips, and they demonstrate some practical use cases that show the PCMark 8 is more accurate than anything Intel is using.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
KDE for People Initiative Calls for AI Ban in Plasma
A new community of KDE wants the project to adopt a strict no-AI policy for KDE Plasma.
-
KDE Sets Ambitious Goals for 2026 and Beyond
KDE Connect reveals the goals for the Linux desktop darling, with one of those goals long overdue.
-
It’s Time to Test Fedora 45 Beta
Fedora 45 beta has been released with updated Gnome, KDE Plasma, and kernel.
-
Ubuntu Stonking Stingray Gets Even Rustier
Ubuntu 26.10 has completed its migration to the Rust-based coreutils.
-
AI Fixes Linux Bottlenecks Using “Hideous” Code
A Linux developer used AI to fix bottlenecks that caused problems when building the kernel. The resulting AI-generated code needed a lot of work.
-
Advanced Video Coding Still Under Patent
Brazilian patent BRPI0109962B1 has expired, which means that DivX and Xvid are no longer problematic for Linux, but it doesn’t mean that video is all of a sudden fully unleashed.
-
2,000 Vulnerabilities per Linux Release
Thanks to AI bug hunters, the Linux kernel is seeing record numbers of vulnerabilities, and it's overwhelming developers.
-
Linux Exempt from California’s Age Verification Law
So long as Linux is distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses, the OS is exempt from being required to verify the age of its users in California.
-
Roll Out the Cake: Linux Turns 35
35 years ago, a Finnish student began a humble project that would forever change the course of technology.
-
China Switching from Windows to Linux
China has ordered several government agencies to drop a Chinese-developed version of Windows 10 in favor of either KylinOS or UOS.