[slgeorge]

Your first point is not true compared to Ubuntu at least [0]. AWS is basically are repackaged version of KVM (the last time I checked), so there's no particular advantage. Ubuntu (and I'm sure Centos/RHEL) provide custom images which have the same optimised code.

[0] I'm pretty sure it's true for CentOS / RHEL, I just don't know for a fact.

[geofft]

AWS is mostly Xen (they just introduced a KVM option https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/now-available-compute-inten... ), and there are a few things like "enhanced networking" where you get a performance boost if you're on a kernel with support but it's still functional if you're on any other kernel.