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On Thu, October 20, 2005 8:06 pm, Sean wrote: |
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> So I am asking some Gentoo amd64 users, are you happy with the version |
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> or would you have gained more with i386? |
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> Do most applications work on amd64 or are there some important ones |
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> missing? |
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> |
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|
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Well, there is no question that more packages will work correctly and will |
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be stable on x86 than amd64. Especially huge packages like openoffice, |
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and java also works much better on x86 (it depends on the app, some work |
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better than others, and some VMs are more stable with handle different |
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apps). |
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|
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On the other hand, in real life the differences in usability are fairly |
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small. The main deficiencies in amd64 are huge apps like openoffice that |
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haven't been ported, and small obscure apps that nobody has bothered to |
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get working. Obviously the x86 platform benefits from most developers |
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targetting it natively. |
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|
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Still, I'm very happy with amd64. The performance should be significantly |
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improved, and you benefit from features like NX and large memory support. |
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I'm a bit of a tinkerer as well, so the occassional breakdown doesn't |
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bother me as long as core apps are stable (such as samba/apache/etc - |
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gotta keep the wife acceptance factor high and if the windows domain goes |
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down it is an issue). |
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|
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If you're running a commercial server I wouldn't go anywhere near amd64 |
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unless it is just running a small set of core apps (like apache) and you |
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expect to benefit from the improved performance. On the other hand, if |
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you're deploying a non-saturated general-purpose server you really should |
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be going with something more stable (probably debian). |
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|
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Keep in mind that you can run x86 in a chroot just fine, and that is |
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reasonably convenient for anything other than servers/daemons since they |
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aren't running out of /etc/init.d. |
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|
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I'm guessing that if you're adventurous enough to be running gentoo in the |
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first place you'll be fairly happy with amd64. There are also lots of |
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ways to contribute if you run amd64. Just about all package developers |
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who are running on x86 are happy to receive feedback from amd64 users, |
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especially if you suggest patches (not that I personnally excel at this). |
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In this way even a somewhat novice programmer can contribute to major |
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projects in ways that some of the more senior developers cannot by virtue |
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of having a different platform to test on. I think you'll also find that |
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amd64 has one of the largest groups of dedicated developers in gentoo, and |
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the amd64 herd is probably larger than any comparable group on almost any |
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distro... |
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|
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So, overall I'm very happy with amd64, even if it does mean fixing the |
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occassional bug now and then. |
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-- |
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