[gentoo-amd64] Re: i386 vs amd64

[Duncan]

Richard Freeman posted
<37186.202.248.61.99.1129855791.squirrel@××××××××××××.org>, excerpted
below,  on Thu, 20 Oct 2005 20:49:51 -0400:

> Keep in mind that you can run x86 in a chroot just fine, and that is
> reasonably convenient for anything other than servers/daemons since they
> aren't running out of /etc/init.d.

This bears reemphasis.  There's little reason except for simple
time/laziness that a 100% x86 install would be better than a mainly amd64
system, since for the few things that /are/ binary only or not yet ported
to amd64, an x86 chroot should be the maximum required solution.  Most x86
applications won't even need that, as they'll run just fine on an amd64
system with the appropriate emul-linux-x86-XXXX libs installed.  

Do note that the emul-linux stuff is binary packages, however, generally
lightly optimized as they are designed to run on ia64/itanic as well.  For
more optimization or just because you are more comfortable with
from-source, the chroot does work, but it's really not necessary for the
vast majority of users that need only the occasional 32-bit app.

If you /do/ choose to go 32-bit chroot, but it's DEFINITELY a recommended
read in ANY case, take a look at the amd64 technotes, available here:

http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/base/amd64/technotes/index.xml

*** AGAIN, READ THE ABOVE TECH NOTES!!! ***  They will answer a number of
questions before you ask and could save you some major headaches
needlessly going thru stuff others have already figured out.

> I'm guessing that if you're adventurous enough to be running gentoo in the
> first place you'll be fairly happy with amd64.  There are also lots of
> ways to contribute if you run amd64.  Just about all package developers
> who are running on x86 are happy to receive feedback from amd64 users,
> especially if you suggest patches (not that I personnally excel at this).
> In this way even a somewhat novice programmer can contribute to major
> projects in ways that some of the more senior developers cannot by virtue
> of having a different platform to test on.  I think you'll also find that
> amd64 has one of the largest groups of dedicated developers in gentoo, and
> the amd64 herd is probably larger than any comparable group on almost any
> distro...

That has been my experience as well.  I'll reemphasize the sizable amd64
herd part, and add that amd64 was the first to have arch testers (ATs),
and is still the only herd to have more than a small handful.  These ATs
have become an enormous resource to the Gentoo AMD64 team, one reason the
idea has been exported to some of the other archs as well.  

ATs are sort of developers in training, altho the AT position is certainly
important in its own right, as well.  They take a certification quiz and
do much of the grunt work in testing that a package is actually stable
enough on AMD64 to get the ~amd64 keyword, and eventually be upgraded to
amd64 stable.  They have read access to the CVS/Subversion tree, and
slightly elevated privileges on bugzilla, but any proposed patches and the
like still go thru a fully certified Gentoo developer to get into the
tree.  It's pretty safe to say that the ATs are one of the big reasons the
number of packages in portage available to amd64 and ~amd64 users has
grown to be near that of x86, and that is becoming more the case every
day.

(Let me be clear that I write this as a user, not an AT or developer
myself, tho I certainly intend to become an AT at some point, only haven't
yet.)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html


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