[ale] Bleeding edge linux?

[Jeff Hubbs]

Stephen Turner wrote:

>im using gentoo which does the same, if im right (i
>know it compiles it optimized for your machine) it
>compiles it optimized but barely optimized. it
>compiles it in a c code form still, true just as a os
>alone the performance may go unnoticed but if it coes
>from a clutterd c code (usable on various processors
>even after optimized) to a small assembly code size,
>well the hard drive space saved plus on servers under
>load i think it would shine nicely :) but running it
>under a 1ghz with just a user desktop.. no it wouldnt
>help not much. im tempted to try it though, however i
>would need folowers due to my lack of skill and time i
>would not be able to take this task on alone. and
>seeing how it would only be a compiler, all programs
>made for linux should work. good idea or bad idea?
>
>>The speed you would gain on today's processors would
>>be so marginal as 
>>to
>>go unnoticed. I think it was Sorceror linux that was
>>doing something
>>similar, allowing you to download the source and
>>compile it natively 
>>with
>>optimizations for your machine. Cool idea, but it
>>takes quite a bit of
>>time to compile all that source and, as I said, the
>>gains in speed are 
>>so
>>slim, I doubt its worth it. 
>>
>>Ben
>>
This mirrors my experience.  The crack at Gentoo that I took featured 
hours and hours of compiling on a K6-2+/500, only to get to the point 
where I simply couldn't get X running.  I also just recently observed 
that running the i686 SETI at Home client vs. the i386 client made no 
significant difference on an AMD K7.  This is not to imply that it's a 
waste of time to try to compile for better than 386, in fact, my 
SETI at Home example might well have been hamstrung by pre-existing 
libraries still compiled for 586 (this is Mandrake after all) or the 
simple possiblity that the nature of the SAH client may not get any 
benefit (they don't bother doing optimized clients for everything, such 
as MMX or 3DNow).  I would say that, for a given usage, "compiling up" 
SHOULD at least be looked into and evaluated, and once that is done, you 
can gauge the benefit accordingly.  

- Jeff



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