PC-BSD vs GNU/Linux, performance differences

After reading this PC-BSD vs Ubuntu review I find myself wanting to give PC-BSD a try. Last time I tried any BSD I was wholly discouraged from it because it didn't support my USB modem. But today I have ADSL! This is almost certainly supported (I suppose pppoeconf works there. ). I'm suddenly excited about it.

So I'm wondering, aside from the usual differences between Ubuntu and PC-BSD, which basically amount to the same differences between any GNU/Linux distros (default desktop environment, package management), one and probably most significant difference is the kernel. We've been discussing performance issues of the Linux kernel in this article before where I also complained that for audio production it isn't very good (needs special optimizations). So I'm really wondering how would PC-BSD compare in that sense?

I realize that Mac OS X is based on BSD. I wonder how similar is its XNU kernel to the one FreeBSD and hence PC-BSD uses. I mean, Mac is known to be a multimedia production platform. Heck, I just read recently that my currently favorite DJ and producer, dutch Armin Van Buuren, actually uses a Mac for his work! So, if kernel has anything to do with performance of multimedia applications on a Mac, perhaps there is something common between it and a BSD?

At the end of the day I'm just interested in what would the overall performance difference between GNU/Linux and BSD be, with emphasis to audio (and video) production.

I'll probably try it one of these days, perhaps write a review article emphasizing how blurred the lines really are, even technically, between Free Software OSs. Code is shared hence available on all Free platforms - it underscores the transition of Nuxified.org to a "Free Software everywhere" premise.

Thanks