How to speed up Linux

Disclaimer: only do this if you don't care about heartbleed, zombieload or spectre exploits (aka, don't do this at work or in the cloud or on a shared hosting service - only on your own VMs at home or somewhere where bad guys won't be visiting)

Append the kernel parameter "mitigations=off" to your boot line.

The "mitigations" are patches to the linux kernel to protect any data leakage in a hypervisor situation where you are running a VM and a bag guy is also running a VM on the same host. There are hacks that use exploits to break the barrier between the two VMs and it can cause some data leakage. These mitigations cause the CPU to be substantially slower however, so removing these mitigations helps speed up your computer overall! So, this simple change gets you between 30% and 80% faster machine!

You're welcome.