[plug] Gentoo vs [slackware]

[Rob Davies]

On Thu, 19 Jun 2003, Jan Hurst wrote:

> Hi,
>
> i have been using gentoo (www.gentoo.org) for sometime and find it
> great.
>
> unfortunately, the packages are updated quite often (good thing) but as
> most packages are compiled from scratch this can take a fair amount of
> time (bad thing - mozilla takes *hours* for example, don't even start on
> kde ;).
>
> 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).

Slackware, poison of choice for desktop, later X programs than Debian, but
a little behind bleeding edge distros so testing is thorough , but not
debian thorough. I have not tried Gentoo but Slack with KDE is a stable
and fast environment. If not afraid to get hands dirty then it is
very easy to compile ones own packages of choice from source, before check
linuxpackages.net for slack variants and forums etc and current tree at
slackware.com. Very Stable, Slick and quick not bleeding edge, but not to
far from the edge.

slackware
> 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? will i notice a speed
> difference? are the gentoo claims of massive performance increases truth
> or myth? (gentoo certainly seems faster than any other distro ive
> used... but that is hardly from any real testing ;)

uses -mcpu=i686 optimization for best performance on i686-class machines
like the P3, P4, and Duron/Athlon

Rob Davies
rob at ftp.rjdarts.com

'To converse is one strategy that separates us, from the Apes.'