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On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 12:17 AM, Grant Edwards <grante@××××.com> wrote: |
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> On 2009-02-04, James <wireless@×××××××××××.com> wrote: |
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>> Grant Edwards <grante <at> visi.com> writes: |
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>> |
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>>> Whenever I see a write-up of Gentoo, it's described as a system |
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>>> similar to BSD "ports" where you build packages from source. |
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>>> The main benefit claimed for this approach is that you get |
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>>> better performance because all executables are optimized for |
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>>> exactly the right instruction set. is practically nil in |
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>>> real-world usage. |
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>> |
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>> Not true. You can eliminate many non-essential portions of a |
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>> compiled program, via use flag and the freedom you get to |
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>> select software, as opposed to other distros. Smaller |
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>> executables are usually always faster. |
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> |
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> You're right, that's another big advantage: you can control |
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> what features get included/enabled in an application. Leaving |
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> out features you don't use makes a big difference in many |
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> applications load/startup times and library dependancies. For |
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> example, leaving out the Gnome and/or KDE support in some apps |
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> makes a pretty big difference. If you only use mutt with |
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> "mbox" formatted mailboxes, you can leave out imap, ssl, pop, |
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> and maildir support. |
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> |
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> But that wasn't what I was talking about, and AFAICT that's not |
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> what reviewers are talking about when they talk about adjusting |
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> compiler flags to optimize performance. They seem to be talking |
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> about building for Athlon instead of P4 (or vice-versa). |
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> Perhaps I've always completely misunderstood the articles I've |
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> read, and they were indeed talking about USE flags that control |
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> options passed to "configure" and not about things like gcc's |
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> -march and -O options. |
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> |
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>> One *BIG* difference is when the GPUs on video cards are used |
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>> as co-processors on systems. ATI and Nv are working on making |
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>> general purpose "C" languages for programs to take advantage |
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>> of the power of the GPU. Look for Gentoo to beat the other |
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>> distros, by the very nature of how it compiles code for |
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>> everything. |
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> |
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> That would indeed be interesting. |
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|
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This thread is not complete without the obligatory link: |
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|
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http://funroll-loops.info/ |
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|
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:) |
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