More Patches To Improve Linux Desktop Responsiveness

[Yfrwlf]

Linux distro's are multiflavor things. There will always be a zillion distro's simply because "we can". You can hate it but that will only make your day worse. Better to accept it and see the positive side of it: users can have Linux the way they like it best.

Um, this problem is easily solvable, it's called automatically downloading missing libraries, like "getlib" does for you. There are a million ways of going about doing that so that everything just works, but instead of implementing said system, developer's egos are in the way apparently thinking their distro and version is the best so everyone should just include what libraries are needed with theirs in mind. Who gives a crap about everyone else.

It's called god damn standards, and until a god damn standardized dependency retrieval system is implemented in the major distros, Linux users will be forever in dependency hell and will never reach that "Just Works" goal to make Linux competitive on the desktop. At least things just work when installing from repos, which is what they want, but that's a walled garden and users should not be forced to live in walled gardens all the time.

[pingufunkybeat]

What's the difference between a "standardized dependency retrieval system" and a distro?

[Yfrwlf]

What's the difference between a "standardized dependency retrieval system" and a distro?

Pretty much just different versions of different pre-installed applications, hopefully.

I'm sorry for rocking the boat and wanting libraries easily accessible, lets just leave the things the way they are, letting developers release programs for specific versions of specific distros, and if you don't have the correct distro and version then it's dependency hell for you. Because EVERYONE's grandma can wade through library dependency hell EASILY. Things are great when we pit one distro against another in trying to attract developers to only release packages for their distro and no one else's, and in doing so fracture the Linux platform, which is already a small enough percentage as it is. That will be great for freedom and Linux adoption, because, you know, users are just more free when they are forced to only get software from their repos. It's great for standards, and allows everyone to easily share applications between one another. Yay sudo-freedom! Boo change!

[kernelOfTruth]

ok, "forget" about this patchset:

it hurts way too much specific workloads, especially during high I/O (which was the main probem in the past, too) and thus make it worse

try 2.6.36-rc3 with Peter Zijlstra's mmu preempt patchset applied: http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/8/31/212, additionally you could apply Miao Xie's (from Fujitsu) patches to improve memcpy operations for x86_64

thanks to concurrent workers, and other enhancements throughout the kernel (especially vmscan improvements) you'll think you've never experienced a more responsive desktop

2.6.36 overall feels way more capable - like an allrounder ^^

[The_Rebel]

I've tried the zen2 patch and configured the kernel with CFS and zen tune profile for desktops.. while using the preemptive kernel option..

It actually makes everything slower than the stock Ubuntu 10.04 kernel. I am running this on extremely shit computers, thought i'd give them a performance boost.. maybe i'm setting things too high though.

[Kano]

You should not use more than 1000 hz.

[The_Rebel]

You should not use more than 1000 hz.

i left it at 1000mhz

[RealNC]

i left it at 1000mhz

1000mhz is 1000000000Hz :P

[The_Rebel]

oh right.. then it was defo 1000hz..

[Yfrwlf]

Linux distro's are multiflavor things. There will always be a zillion distro's simply because "we can". You can hate it but that will only make your day worse. Better to accept it and see the positive side of it: users can have Linux the way they like it best.

To explain a little better, there doesn't need to be a zillion versions of the same program, that's called fragmentation. Good programs should be modular and/or should have options you can flip on and off. My point is that there is no reason whatsoever for so many distros, distros should only be for providing default bundles of programs and choosing default options. It's absolutely hilarious that the main thing differentiating the distros are their package managers, these proprietary things that make life worse for everyone and serve only to proprietarize Linux and nothing more. The distro companies put a strangle hold on the ONE main critical thing in the system: your ability to install software. That wasn't happenstance.

PROPER, REAL, and FREE package management should be based around the ability for developers to easily offer up their software to the public, and the public's ability to painlessly have access to and the freedom to install and run those programs how they want with NO dependence on any corporations.

Anytime a corporation makes money, you have to be watching closely to make sure your freedoms aren't being compromised in the process, and this compromising IS happening in several ways one of which is merely the fact that Ubuntu DEB programs are being compiled. This fact means your software may not be available unless you're on Ubuntu. That is NOT real Linux freedom.

So far the only package management system that I have seen which actually allows you to install libraries side-by-side easily and thus blows away the problem with dependencies is Zero Install, and straight custom installers, but the latter isn't as great because there is no centralized management provided for removing the program later.