Linux fat/bloated

[Walter Dnes]

On Fri, Apr 07, 2006 at 01:34:57PM -0400, Lennart Sorensen wrote

> > Yeah, that may also make you feel it runs faster, it's like
> > placebo, you know ;)
> 
> After waiting for the compile, anything will feel fast. :)

  My personal experience...

  - an old "breakout-style" video game called "Xboing"

  - ran OK on my old 1999 Dell (450 mhz PIII, 128 megs ram) under Debian

  - speed level 1 was a bit slow, and I could handle up to speed level 3

  - under Gentoo, with optimizations, Xboing runs so fast that you have
    to hack the source and insert a massive delay loop, in order to make
    it playable at the "slowest" speed.

  The worst part is that on older machines, which benefit the most from
using every last optimization, compiling takes the longest.  Gentoo no
longer uses a "Stage 1" or "stage 2" install.  Every install is what
used to be known as "stage 3".  You can always run things overnight.  A
worst-case scenario, a 400 mhz PII, with 128 megs of ram, took approx 8
hours to get from a basic text-console-only install to installing Gimp.
That includes X (and supporting libraries, and TWM, and Gimp (and
supporting libraries).

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org> In linux /sbin/init is Job #1
My musings on technology and security at http://tech_sec.blog.ca
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