---
name: 'Our Troubles with Linux and Why You Should Care'
short: 'A joint work between Professors Tim Brecht, Ashif Harji, and	Peter Buhr, this talk describes experiences using the Linux	kernel as a platform for conducting performance evaluations.'
date: 'July 04 2011 13:30'
online: false
location: 'MC 5158'
---

Linux provides researchers with a full-fledged operating system that is	widely used and open source. However, due to its complexity and rapid	development, care should be exercised when using Linux for performance	experiments, especially in systems research. The size and continual	evolution of the Linux code-base makes it difficult to understand, and	as a result, decipher and explain the reasons for performance	improvements. In addition, the rapid kernel development cycle means	that experimental results can be viewed as out of date, or meaningless,	very quickly. We demonstrate that this viewpoint is incorrect because	kernel changes can and have introduced both bugs and performance	degradations.

This talk describes some of our experiences using the Linux kernel as a	platform for conducting performance evaluations and some performance	regressions we have found. Our results show, these performance	regressions can be serious (e.g., repeating identical experiments	results in large variability in results) and long lived despite having	a large negative impact on performance (one problem appears to have	existed for more than 3 years). Based on these experiences, we argue	that it is often reasonable to use an older kernel version,	experimental results need careful analysis to explain why a change in	performance occurs, and publishing papers that validate prior research	is essential.

This is joint work with Ashif Harji and Peter Buhr.

This talk will be about 20-25 minutes long with lots of time for	questions and discussion afterwards.

