Comment by viraptor

> how can the OS know if I'm after throughput or latency

Because you tell it by enabling / disabling buffering (Nagle).

And most apps do prefer throughput. Those that don't really know that they prefer latency.

> since OS doesn't know about what this particular app needs with respect to throughput vs latency tradeoffs.

I think you're mixing up determining what you want (app choice) with how to achieve that best (OS information). I was responding to the parent talking about flushing and buffer sizes specifically.