Re:X, windows and things like Berlin.
on
Fifteen Years of X
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· Score: 1
2 reasons for the slowness:
Most communication is done via a pipe. Instead of a single context switch into the kernel running the GUI ala windows/mac, you have a context switch into the kernel to communicate with the X server and then again for the X server to get those commands. Then even potentially more system calls that the X server has to perform.
X defines very primative operations, because of that, it's very hard to accelerate them (ie, batch them up and send them optimized to a graphic card's processor).
I'm sure there's more, but even so I can't stand windows/mac, I'm happy with my X.:)
David Greenman, the Co-founder/Principal Architect of the FreeBSD Project just posted a new picture of the new wcarchive, it is now available here.
Updated hardware description is also available here.
It would be amazing if someone could pull some nice effects with The Gimp and make a cool looking "ftp.cdrom.com theme" for Windowmaker or something...
note to self, quoting a message on slashdot stinks...:)
>> 1) gcc/egcs has terrible optimization for it > Right now Alpha doesn't have the compilers to do the job well but in the very near future compaq > will be releasing their ported DU compilers for Alphalinux and their cost will range from very little to nothing. > So that's on the way.
That's nice, and the makers of "The Matrix" should have waited for the new compilers or written them themselves?
>> 2) price/performance trade off > How does complete Alpha systems running at 500 - > 800 Mhz starting at under $1000 sound? It'll be a reality very soon.
"The Matrix" is already a reality, in business you just can't wait.
>> If you are going to build a cluster system, why >> grab the most the overpriced system for a measly >> gain in performance. > Measly? Yeah, tell the guys at Digital Domain that.
Perhaps the performance gain isn't "measly" but it just can NOT compete price/preformance ratio
>> Like I said, other archs may have more >> performance, but at what cost? > The cost is comming down drasticly. You're gonna > see Alpha's for around the same price a PII 450 system real soon.
Interesting, "The Matrix" came out 2 weeks ago right? So instead of promising all these features... how about using a platform that offers it all right now? Sure alpha is faster and really cool, but when people are concerned about price and performance.....
>> oh, and if you do have alpha... >> >> http://www.freebsd.org/ > I like *BSD and I've used Alphas for years. I like to have a X server too;)
diffs to get XFree to compile on alpha: http://www.freebsd.org/~dfr/
Stop with the hype, you can't beat cheap intel hardware for clustering, get over it.
Please research or think twice about responding to my posts. It'll make for more interesting conversation.:)
Slashdot Mirror
2 reasons for the slowness:
:)
Most communication is done via a pipe. Instead of a single context switch into the kernel running the GUI ala windows/mac, you have a context switch into the kernel to communicate with the X server and then again for the X server to get those commands. Then even potentially more system calls that the X server has to perform.
X defines very primative operations, because of that, it's very hard to accelerate them (ie, batch them up and send them optimized to a graphic card's processor).
I'm sure there's more, but even so I can't stand windows/mac, I'm happy with my X.
on my 4.0 system with dual 400-PII i get about a 55 minute buildworld using -O3 -mpentium and no shortcuts. I was wondering how your box does?
Other noted configuration: 256ram, 9gig 2940UWscsi
Just curious...
FreeBSD SMP has been great lately, the 3.2 release incorperates many new optimizations for faster SMP performance.
I can't say for sure how it benches against Linux, however FreeBSD's stability and speed always keeps me impressed.
Although it has more RAID support, Linux just doesn't cut it for *me* in terms of easy upgrades, scalibility and stability.
> Seeing as how Hughes Network Systems is involved... I suspect they would lean away from linux or bsd.
*aol mode activated*
why?
*aol off*
Anyone that can base their appliance off a free OS is doing a smart thing by avoiding royalties imo.
David Greenman, the Co-founder/Principal Architect of the FreeBSD Project just posted a new picture of the new wcarchive, it is now available here.
Updated hardware description is also available here.
It would be amazing if someone could pull some nice effects with The Gimp and make a cool looking "ftp.cdrom.com theme" for Windowmaker or something...
Perhaps FreeBSD isn't keeping up with the internet growth, but I doubt that the userbase of FreeBSD is shrinking.
Here, have a cookie, can I have some real statistics now?
note to self, quoting a message on slashdot stinks... :)
;)
:)
>> 1) gcc/egcs has terrible optimization for it
> Right now Alpha doesn't have the compilers to do the job well but in the very near future compaq
> will be releasing their ported DU compilers for Alphalinux and their cost will range from very little to nothing.
> So that's on the way.
That's nice, and the makers of "The Matrix" should have waited for the new compilers or written them themselves?
>> 2) price/performance trade off
> How does complete Alpha systems running at 500 -
> 800 Mhz starting at under $1000 sound? It'll be a reality very soon.
"The Matrix" is already a reality, in business you just can't wait.
>> If you are going to build a cluster system, why
>> grab the most the overpriced system for a measly
>> gain in performance.
> Measly? Yeah, tell the guys at Digital Domain that.
Perhaps the performance gain isn't "measly" but it just can NOT compete price/preformance ratio
>> Like I said, other archs may have more
>> performance, but at what cost?
> The cost is comming down drasticly. You're gonna
> see Alpha's for around the same price a PII 450 system real soon.
Interesting, "The Matrix" came out 2 weeks ago right? So instead of promising all these features... how about using a platform that offers it all right now? Sure alpha is faster and really cool, but when people are concerned about price and performance.....
>> oh, and if you do have alpha...
>>
>> http://www.freebsd.org/
> I like *BSD and I've used Alphas for years. I like to have a X server too
diffs to get XFree to compile on alpha:
http://www.freebsd.org/~dfr/
Stop with the hype, you can't beat cheap intel hardware for clustering, get over it.
Please research or think twice about responding to my posts. It'll make for more interesting conversation.
-Alfred