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On Sunday 01 January 2006 23:22, michael@×××××××××××××.com wrote: |
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> How slow is too slow for Gentoo? I'm using Gentoo on a 233MHz laptop. |
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> It's not fast, but it's perfectly adequate. Install did take over a |
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> week, I'll admit. |
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> |
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> I'm curious because I seem to do a lot of squeezing the most out of |
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> underpowered computers, and Gentoo has been my friend in these projects. |
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> I would like to know what conditions are not well suited to Gentoo. |
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> |
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> Michael |
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TBH that's a question of, it can be done in any situation, it's simply how |
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willing you are to adjust to those situations. |
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|
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One of the main factor people consider is time. They want the stuff now and |
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they don't want to wait around for things to compile. However, with that |
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inherent approach comes the lack of flexibility in choosing what you don't |
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need, and what you do. Think of postgres/mysql/sqlite for example. All of |
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these provide database functionality, but chances are you're only going to |
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pick one. If you don't use postgresql support, then why add it into various |
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applications, causing both more space and more memory to load. While that |
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example alone might not seem like a lot, consider the different |
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functionalities portage offers the ability to customize through USE flags. |
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After awhile people start to realize that stuff is loaded faster, not because |
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of suped up CFLAGS, but because the parts they stripped out creates faster |
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load time. |
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|
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Now, binary support for portage exists, but it's not as advertised as the true |
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install method. That's because most senior developers consider Gentoo to |
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have always been a source based distro. Anything to make it binary would |
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consider it to be more like debian or some such. |
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Then ANOTHER argument comes into play by people that have mass server |
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deployments. People that have a cluster of 100 systems with the same specs |
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don't want to sit around and compile for each one. Instead they could have a |
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build server that builds the binary packages for the systems, then the |
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systems do the install. |
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That's basically what it comes down to. Time is the main factor that draws |
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people away. However I personally consider this a side effect, and have no |
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problem letting emerge -u world do its thing overnight. |
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|
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Chris White |