> Can’t one recompile the same exact Ubuntu packages you already have on your system with optimal flags for your specific hardware?
Well, in principle yes. But you'd also need to figure out what you mean by 'optimal' flags? The flags might differ between different packages, and not all packages will be compatible with all the flags.
Even worse, in the example in the article they got most of their speedup out of moving to a different allocator, and that's not necessarily compatible with all packages (nor an improvement for all packages).
However, if you still want to do all these things, then Gentoo Linux is the distribution for you. It supports this tinkering directly and you'll have a much happier time than trying to bend Ubuntu to your will.
Well, in principle yes. But you'd also need to figure out what you mean by 'optimal' flags? The flags might differ between different packages, and not all packages will be compatible with all the flags.
Even worse, in the example in the article they got most of their speedup out of moving to a different allocator, and that's not necessarily compatible with all packages (nor an improvement for all packages).
However, if you still want to do all these things, then Gentoo Linux is the distribution for you. It supports this tinkering directly and you'll have a much happier time than trying to bend Ubuntu to your will.