tripolar wrote:
I recently tinkered with another GNU/Linux distro Gentoo. I was impressed with several features- especially having everything run super fast compared to other distros. I am sure there is a simple answer to this though I must ask to get it :-) I would like to go back to debian though start with a very small base then any other programs I install- compile them from source to get a more stripped and fast OS.I played around a bit with this idea and found out that the only thing where I could notice a difference was compilen a custom kernel with the new gcc-3.? and setting the optimization level for my CPU correctly in the Kernel makfile.I seem to remember some line in sources.list relateding to source. Any suggestions what to start with? Also, Do most of you consider Debian better than Gentoo? Why? Thanks
/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/Makefile ifdef CONFIG_MPENTIUMIII CFLAGS += -march=pentium3 -mmmx -msse endifI'm not sure if the -mmx -msse will make any difference because they can only be used for floating point arithmetic, and thats something the kernel doesn't do much.
I also set the optimisation level form -O2 to -O3 in some earlier compilations, but I can't say It made a difference I could notice, beside of increasing the size of the binary so that I couldn't make a rescue-floppy anymore (which I usually don't do anyway).
The other application where I noticed a real difference was with mplayer, which I compiled from source with different optimisations and got big performnce differences when reproducing dvds.
About the Debian or Gentoo question: I liked the idea of gentoo, but found it a bit unpracticable to have to wait all the compilation when installing a little app I just want to try. The other aspect is that Debian is seemlessly integrated comparing with gentoo. (I don't want to start a flame here, it's just my opinion) And you have a lot more ready-packaged applications which makes life easier. Thats the main reason I kept Debian as my OS.
You can also try apt-build, but as I said, compiling the a nice kernel for my cpu was the only thing worth doing in my opinion.
Regards, and sorry for my english Andreas