It depends on many factors such as kernel , file system etc. Linux kernel can be tuned for various parameter.We can tune and prioritize both process and I/O scheduling, processor, memory and I/O affinity,paging, shared and other memory-VM, etc. I mean it depend on your tuning as well as how much application and daemons are running. But question still remain relevant because with same sort of application and daemon and tuning same kernel parameter which distribution run fastest.
As performance is concern many expert believe that BSD(http://www.freebsd.org/), Arch(http://www.archlinux.org/) and Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/) perform better than others. Some techie also prefer compiling own linux from linux from scratch(http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/). Although i never used any of these preferred distro but my experience say for better performance slackware (http://www.slackware.com/) can also be one of choice.One important point to remind that there is nothing as fastest linux distribution its all depends on your taste, and how much you tune and customize linux for you. For latest trends in popularity you can visit distrowatch.com
As performance is concern many expert believe that BSD(http://www.freebsd.org/), Arch(http://www.archlinux.org/) and Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/) perform better than others. Some techie also prefer compiling own linux from linux from scratch(http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/). Although i never used any of these preferred distro but my experience say for better performance slackware (http://www.slackware.com/) can also be one of choice.One important point to remind that there is nothing as fastest linux distribution its all depends on your taste, and how much you tune and customize linux for you. For latest trends in popularity you can visit distrowatch.com
