[plug] Gentoo vs [insert ur fav distro here]

[Craig Ringer]

> i am considering switching to a binary distribution and using something
> like debian. i understand debians packages are updated quite frequently
> but at least i wont have to recompile mozilla every other week (for
> example... it takes AGES).
> 
> one of the "selling points" of gentoo is that by compiling (and
> optimising) packages a large speed increase is gained. i dont know how
> accurate this is but i am interested in getting some opinions. does
> debian have 686 (P4)optimised binary packages?

Nope, except for the kernel.

Also, i686 is anything from the Pentium Pro on up - PII, K7, PIII, P4, 
K8 :-)
If you're compiling with -mcpu=pentium4 (or whatever, I forget the exact 
flag) that's a different thing to basic i686 opts. If you're using an 
-march= flag, that's different again.

You'd need to recompile performance-critical debian packages for your 
platform if you wanted specific optimisations.

As for debian - things like KDE can take /forever/ to get updated even 
in sid.

Craig Ringer