Making the 'Best' Desktop Linux System

NorhLoudspeaker writes "Michael C. Barnes gives DesktopLinux.com readers an in-depth analysis of the technologies that make open source a great alternative to proprietary operating systems. Examining the various components that constitute a complete system, Barnes provides practical advice and instruction on how to improve your desktop experience and productivity with freely available software. He reviews desktop environments, communications using voice-over-IP, common applications, and more."

Comments

free gmail invites

[Anonymous Coward]

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-517235 8b19-6f45f145ca

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-13556c 0563-18969179a8

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-bc9b11 50e2-0bef3ba2a4

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-d6f302 cd83-e0644e7ef5

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-62e3c6 9d32-22621daaff

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-6c3f07 c84e-b9e70ce4cd

Re:free gmail invites

[3770]

I have a -1 modifier on anonymous cowards these days. Try it.

Oooooh yeah?

[Soko]

Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

What I saw when I first clicked the story.

Statistics aside, not a promising begining to "Making the 'Best' Desktop Linux System", is it?

(BTW, ubuntu is the best desktop distro I've had the pleasure of using so far. It's even Debian based, which is icing on the cake.)

Soko

Debian troll

[Nailer]

I stopped reading when he started pushing that there's no way to resolve dependencies with RPM files, and then went on to compare a packaging system (RPM) with a tool that lives on top of one (apt-get).

"Ford has an engine - with Holden, you get a steering wheel and comfy seats"

Software vs. Hardware -- The Landscape Has Changed

[Chris Tyler]

I've been doing RAID in various ways for about a decade. The hardware vs. software landscape is very different than it was a few years ago:

(1) Hardware RAID -- this used to be the obvious choice; why load up the main CPU doing XOR loops? However, we are now seeing a lot of 'raid' cards that are in effect little more than multi-interface cards with some code in a BIOS rom, forcing the CPU to do all the work anyways. Putting them aside -- and those will be most of the low-end cards -- the higher-end hardware RAID cards just don't provide the bang for the buck that they used to. This is because...

(2) Software RAID has improved dramatically, especially in Linux (and I presume but cannot confirm, in the BSD's). The processor instructions that were added to the CPUs to accelerate graphics (3Dnow, SSE, ...) happen to work very nicely for RAID calculations as well. This is why you'll see some kernels run through trials to see which of several different parity algorithms is faster on the current CPU. This combined with other tuning done in the RAID code has reduced CPU overhead to who-cares levels.

The current software RAID implementation on Linux does hot sparing and rebuilds quite nicely. I haven't had a drive fail on a software RAID box, but I've simulated it, and the recovery was exactly according to spec. The only standard gotcha is booting when the boot drive has failed -- software RAID is little help there.

The ultimate IMHO is LVM on top of RAID -- flexible partitioning, the ability to migrate off devices, snapshot backups in addition to the peace-of-mind of RAID, and all for less than 3% CPU utilization.

Some advice...

[toupsie]

Look here...