Operating System Schedulers and Performance Tuning
Operating System Schedulers and Performance Tuning Operating systems decide who runs when. The scheduler balances responsiveness, fairness, and throughput. Small tweaks can make interactive apps feel snappier and help busy servers stay responsive without wasting CPU time. How schedulers work Most systems separate foreground tasks from background work. Linux uses the Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS), which uses virtual runtimes to allocate CPU time fairly over the long run. Windows uses a mix of ready queues and priorities, with real-time tasks able to preempt others. In both cases, the aim is to minimize long waits and prevent any single task from starving others. Fairness is supported by aging, where low‑priority tasks slowly gain ground as time passes. ...