From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LUeWL-0003M5-3k for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:58:13 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id BF330E028D; Wed, 4 Feb 2009 09:58:10 +0000 (UTC) Received: from IMPaqm1.telefonica.net (impaqm1.telefonica.net [213.4.149.61]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E58B1E028D for ; Wed, 4 Feb 2009 09:58:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: from IMPmailhost4.adm.correo ([10.20.102.125]) by IMPaqm1.telefonica.net with bizsmtp id Bjdf1b0012iL0W201ly82b; Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:58:08 +0100 Received: from jesgue.homelinux.org ([78.136.66.163]) by IMPmailhost4.adm.correo with BIZ IMP id Bly81b0093XLmEe1kly89U; Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:58:15 +0100 X-TE-authinfo: authemail="i92guboj.terra.es" |auth_email="i92guboj@terra.es" X-TE-AcuTerraCos: auth_cuTerraCos="cosuitera01" Received: from 192.168.0.10 (SquirrelMail authenticated user i92guboj) by jesgue.homelinux.org with HTTP; Wed, 4 Feb 2009 10:58:06 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: <47339296f22e767b5fa1b9987d2b07c9.squirrel@jesgue.homelinux.org> In-Reply-To: References: Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2009 10:58:06 +0100 (CET) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo's advantage: 'optimized for your system' -- huh? From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Jes=FAs_Guerrero?= To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.5.2 [SVN] Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: b049b01c-8eda-4962-bf4e-c87d660a8b4c X-Archives-Hash: dcdf7d7192980aa460ee91734ace11ca El Mar, 3 de Febrero de 2009, 23:39, Grant Edwards escribi=F3: > Whenever I see a write-up of Gentoo, it's describe as a system > similar to BSD "ports" where you build packages from source. The main > benefit claimed for this approach is that you get better performance > because all executables are optimized for exactly the right instruction > set. > > Where did that bit of apocrypha come from, and why is it > parroted by so many people? There are parrots in all the social groups. That doesn't mean that there aren't skilled users that see the real benefit. The difference is that skilled users (or simply those that use the system for real advantages and not due to some parrot axiom like this one) don't go echoing how normal they are all around. The result is that you only hear parrots, but that doesn't mean they are the whole nor even the majority of a given community. > AFAICT, the "performance" benefit due to compiler optimization > is practically nil in real-world usage. > > In my experience the huge benefit of source-based distros such > as Gentoo is elimination of the library dependency-hell that mires othe= r > binary-based distros. Yes. I wholeheartedly agree with you here. USE flags they are. And I love this part of Gentoo. > The second benefit is that with Gentoo, upgrading a system > actually works over the long-run. With RedHat/Mandrake, things would > gradually deteriorate to the point where the system was unmaintainable, > but attempting to upgrade between major releases was always futile. I'= ve > had Gentoo machines that have been upgraded for 4-5 years without any > significant problems (failed hard-drives don't count). Those who reinstall do it for various reasons. Some are legit (ie. migration from x86 to amd64), some are just hobbyist stuff (most of the times). And some people reinstall because they do all kind of colorful things that break the system to an unusable state. Gentoo is easy to break if you don't read the manuals and are unable to put a minimal degree of common sense behind your actions. That's the dark side of the force. However, I love it. > The third main benefit I've seen is that there are vastly more > packages available for Gentoo. Putting together and maintaining an ebu= ild > appears to take a lot less work than putting together and maintaining a > binary RPM package. Ditto. And upgrading is usually as easy as to use cp to created a new version. A big big advantage is that besides the huge number of packages that we have, we also have dozens of overlays. Some of which are for very specific tasks, and some of them are really bug. Performance is just as good as with any other distro, as long as both are configured in the same -read sane- way. No distro can make your pc 200% faster, only a new $$mobo-cpu-ram$$ combo can do that. --=20 Jes=FAs Guerrero