Re: How usable is Debian on PowerBook G4?
On Thu, 2010-04-01 at 18:11 -0800, Brian Morris wrote:
> On 4/1/10, Brian Morris <cymraegish@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 3/31/10, Michel Dänzer <daenzer@debian.org> wrote:
> >> On Tue, 2010-03-30 at 17:21 -0700, Brian Morris wrote:
> >>> On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 1:38 PM, Aris Monazteriaz <iamaris@gmx.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>> > How usable is Debian on PowerBook G4? Can I install programs right
> >>> > away
> >>> > or
> >>> > I have to compile them myself? Can I install Firefox with Flash
> >>> > support?
> >>> > etc..
> >>> >
> >>>
> >>> You don't have to but if you get the compiler flags right for your cpu
> >>> optimized it will run a lot faster.
> >>> Especially these days more than ever as auto-altivec optimizing has
> >>> been greatly improve with gcc4.5
> >>
> >> Do you have any numbers to back that claim?
> >
> > Try building gprolog - it has a benchmark suite in the build
> > directory. Build from upstream source.
> > 70-100% faster in all tests.
>
> p.s. sorry that figure was from osX Tiger. I haven't finished the
> comparison on current unstable yet.
If you find a similar gap and can isolate it to one or a few compiler
flags, maybe you can ask the gprolog package maintainer to add those
flags if the result also works on non-Altivec-capable machines or
provide Altivec-enabled variants of the binaries otherwise.
--
Earthling Michel Dänzer | http://www.vmware.com
Libre software enthusiast | Debian, X and DRI developer
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