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Measuring The Benefits Of The Gentoo Approach

Posted by timothy on from the not-necessarily-what-you'd-think dept.

An anonymous reader writes "We're constantly hearing how the source based nature of the Gentoo distro makes better use of your hardware, but no-one seems to have really tested it. What kind of gains are involved over distros which use binary packaging? The article is here."

3 of 467 comments (clear)

  1. great article! by randyest · · Score: 0, Troll

    But I think I've read it a few times before already . . .

    Here's a complete repost of the text in case it gets slashdotted. Hmm, guess I should post as AC, but wtf. Just don't mod this up.

    Warning: Lost connection to MySQL server during query in /home/misskim/public_html/linmagau.org/pnadodb/dri vers/adodb-mysql.inc.php on line 170

    Warning: MySQL Connection Failed: Lost connection to MySQL server during query in /home/misskim/public_html/linmagau.org/pnadodb/dri vers/adodb-mysql.inc.php on line 170>
    mysql://misskim:@localhost/misskim failed to connectLost connection to MySQL server during query

    Hmm, guess I should post as AC, but wtf. Just don't mod this up. :)

    --
    everything in moderation
  2. Are you stupid ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Are you on crack? Even today, the CPU speed is a signifigant bottleneck for many operations.

    I think you are on LSD.

    Even the speed of a kernel compile, which is often given as a classic `disk I/O bound' process, is extremely CPU bound. How do I know? Running `top' on an idle box shows 0% cpu utilization. Once I start the compile, it goes to well over 90% cpu utilization and stays there until the compilation is done. (just to be complete, I'm testing this on a dual p3 700 box with SCSI disks, doing a `make -j2'. But even my 2ghz Athlon computer with IDE disks works similarly.)

    The CPU running, in this instance, at near 100% doesn't mean it is a bottleneck - it means that you machine is doing nothing else, so all the CPU's available resources are dedicated to the single task you are currently running.

    A bottleneck is a limitation somewhere within the system that impacts the operational performance of other components of that system.

    If your CPU is running at near 100% for a specific task, it indicates there are no other system bottlenecks are impacting the CPU's capabilities, and your getting all the "bangs-per-buck" you are have paid for.

    On the other hand, if your system is doing nothing else, and your CPU is only running at 60% utilisation during a kernel compile, then you do have a bottleneck somewhere else.

    Now, if the CPU running at near 100% utilisation still isn't fast enough for you, the only "bottleneck" you have is how much money you have spent on the CPU's processing power.

  3. Re:Misses the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    While your idea is very nice, I'd suggest you to port it to a whorwhile operating system, like NetBSD. Since Matt Dillon was expelled by that Poul-Henning Kamp fuctard, FreeBSD has only gone down in quality and stability.

    Turbo Glass