With Intel having sunset Clear Linux, when it comes to aggressive out-of-the-box Linux performance there is the Arch Linux based CachyOS as the leading contender. Given the recent releases of Ubuntu 25.10 and Fedora Workstation 43, if you are curious about the out-of-the-box performance here are some fresh benchmarks of all three using the Framework Desktop.
Nobody will even notice the difference. This is like neovim users shaving 15 microseconds off their startup time, or Gentoo users making a smaller binary by excluding features… Its cool and fun but when picking a Linux distro, probably shouldnt be anyones primary reason.
Sometimes we do this not for smaller binaries, but for security hardening. Excluding a feature from a standard package sometimes shrinks the attack surface.
Yeah thats true. It has security benefits as well.