kernel.org speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 12:53 UTC. Grade B (88/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 150 ms 35%
- TCP connect 80 ms 19%
- Server wait 200 ms 47%
Measured on the connection that fetched the HTML. Every other request on the page waits for the end of this bar before it can start.
How this page compares
Every report published here is in this comparison, so it is a reference population of pages tested from one server - not a benchmark of the whole web.
What these numbers mean
- The first byte arrived in 430 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
- The page transfers 46.8 KB over 11 request(s), which is lean. Images files are 64% of it, so resize and recompress the largest images before anything else.
- The HTML itself arrives gzip-compressed.
- It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
- 93% of the weight comes from other hosts (analytics, fonts, embeds), which also means their slow day becomes your slow day.
- The largest element painted at 688 ms, inside the 2.5 s Google calls good.
- Layout stayed still (CLS 0.001), so nothing jumps under the reader's cursor.
- The main thread was blocked for 7 ms in total, which is not enough to feel.
Fix first: Server response time (TTFB) - Cut server think time: page cache, query indexes, fewer synchronous calls to third parties inside the request. Connection setup is distance, so a nearer region or a CDN edge helps instead.
Read on one shared server, not a visitor's phone: use it to compare pages against each other, not as a promise about every connection. We fix what these tests find.
Screenshot
What the page looks like
Loaded in headless Chromium on this server. Click an image to open it full size.
Browser render
The same URL loaded in a real browser, so these are the readings curl cannot produce. The grade above is still built from the server measurements.
Page weight by type
What the page is made of
Transfer size, compressed as sent. 11 request(s) in total, 46.8 KB across all of them.
Top issues
Server response time (TTFB)
high impactThe first byte arrived after 430 ms. Of that, 200 ms was the server thinking and 230 ms was connection setup. A first byte under 400 ms is what a visitor feels as instant.
Fix: Cut server think time: page cache, query indexes, fewer synchronous calls to third parties inside the request. Connection setup is distance, so a nearer region or a CDN edge helps instead.
Compress text responses
high impact1 text response(s) of 10 KB or more are sent uncompressed, and the document itself is not compressed. That is 13.5 KB of compressible text.
Fix: Turn on brotli (preferred) or gzip for text/css, javascript and text/html in the web server. This is the cheapest win available on almost any site.
Render-blocking resources
high impact5 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (2 script(s), 3 stylesheet(s)). The page cannot paint until each one arrives.
Fix: Add defer or async to scripts that do not change the first paint, inline the critical CSS, and load the rest with media="print" plus an onload swap.
Cache static assets
medium impact10 asset(s) answer without a Cache-Control max-age, so browsers revalidate them on every visit.
Fix: Version filenames on change and serve them with a long max-age plus immutable. That is what makes a returning visitor fast.
Waterfall
Slowest requests
Each bar is one request's own response time, scaled to the slowest. Assets were fetched in parallel, so the bars overlap in real time rather than stacking. first party third party
| Request | Type | Status | Time | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/images/logos/favicon.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 476 ms | 3.7 KB |
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/images/logos/thelinuxfoundation.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 413 ms | 2.5 KB |
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/images/logos/redhat-community.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 411 ms | 3.3 KB |
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/images/logos/akamai.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 407 ms | 4.6 KB |
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/images/logos/fastly-logo.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 404 ms | 1.6 KB |
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/images/logos/constellix-green-logo.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 399 ms | 2.4 KB |
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/images/icons/downloadarrow_small.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 397 ms | 1.1 KB |
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/images/logos/google.png 3rd party | images | 200 | 389 ms | 2.9 KB |
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/images/logos/serverscom.svg 3rd party | images | 200 | 388 ms | 7.9 KB |
| https://www.kernel.org/theme/css/main.css 3rd party | css | 200 | 377 ms | 13.5 KB |
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