SVN Performance Focus

I think it's great that the development team has been looking into 1.7
performance, but I must admit I'm less interested in server
performance than that of the client. My recent experiences with huge
working copy folders has pointed out significant disparities in
performance under different operating and file systems. Meaningful SVN
performance testing should take into account the majority of popular
operating and file systems.

Specialized hardware is interesting when evaluating server
performance, but it tends to skew your focus to problems not addressed
by the hardware optimization. In truth, most server software users
will probably install SVN 1.7 on the hardware they currently use.

When evaluating client performance, tuned hardware is even less
relevant. It's unlikely that users will upgrade their client systems
just to take advantage of "sweet spots" in SVN performance -
especially in this conservative economic environment.

My corporate experience indicates that hardware upgrades are usually
better tied to budgetary cycles and operating system upgrades.

I hope you'll take this in the encouraging light it is offered in.

--
Geoff Rowell
geoff.rowell_at_gmail.com