im considering gentoo for my ibook ...

brady · n00b Joined: 11 Jun 2002 Posts: 23

im considering gentoo for my ibook, but im just not sure yet. i not new to linux, so this is not the issue.

the issue is that i usually run debian on all of my boxen, b/c apt-get is so nice, and the stability is rock solid. however, i have converted this intel box to gentoo, b/c i wanted to witness the compiler optimizations first-hand (and im very impressed). most of the speed, i gather is from the fact that debian compiles all of it's binaries as i386, and this machine is i686.

so, im wondering - would i notice any real improvment on ppc (G3)? i dont know much about debian's ppc compile options, and im not as familiar with ppc semantics and compiler optimizations. my real question - would i notice any real speed improvements?

-brady

masseya · Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2002 3:45 pm Post subject:

I'm also wondering this. There was some disscussion in the laptops forum about the best laptop for gentoo. Has anyone got some experience with gentoo on both x86 and PPC laptops?
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brady · n00b Joined: 11 Jun 2002 Posts: 23

and let me tell you, im impressed. ive been a long-time debian user. and ive used debian on this ibook since the day i got it (right around when the ibook2's came out). however, now that i have gentoo, i wont be going back. the configuration is just too clever. not to mention its noticeably faster than debian.

rt_clik · Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2002 3:33 am Post subject:

I have a Dell Latitude C600 w/ 256MB of RAM and a TiPB 500 w/ 1GB of RAM, both running Gentoo. Not exactly an even match up.

In case you're wondering, the TiPB wins (at least that's my perception...I've not run actual benchmarking yet). The only thing I can say without any hesitation is that the optimizations in building Gentoo blow other distros away (specifically RedHat 7.x on x86 and YellowDog 2.x on PPC). Despite the difference in time investment, I'd never go back to any other distro...at least not without a fight.

If anyone is interested in joining me in working out some real metrics, let me know. We could agree on a benchmarking tool and post info related to machines at our disposal. Might settle any questions about best hardware platform in a scientific fashion without it becoming a religious war.

owen · n00b Joined: 29 Jun 2002 Posts: 5

Well, I haven't noticed a large difference in speed on my 600MHz iBook2 but I was previously using YDL which is fairly optimized for the G3. I'm not sure how Debian is optimized but IIRC most packages are still built on an old 604 machine donated by Motorola or someone when they started the port. I'd probably say they that they're more conservative than the YDL guys when it comes to compiler flags so you might gain some speed.

Owen[/url]

Gerk · Retired Dev Joined: 07 May 2002 Posts: 435

metrics or no metrics it's always a religious war

apples and oranges, both taste good and do the job, but different