Is Arch Linux Really Faster Than Ubuntu?

[nanonyme]

As per the one Intel guys recommendation I use these compliter flags:
CFLAGS="-Os -march=native -pipe -msse -msse2 -msse3 -mssse3 -mfpmath=sse -fomit-frame-pointer -fstrength-reduce -fexpensive-optimizations -finline-functions -funroll-loops -foptimize-register-move"

http://funroll-loops.info/

[b15hop]

True,true.
I only got introduced to Gentoo as it was waning in popularity. I still think it is an ideal distro for a systems developer, because we need an overkill set of devel stuff, so that we can experiment.

Ah there you go. Kind of tells you something actually. Partly at least, but not entirely. When I was using Gentoo, I honestly felt like I was maintaining a system. So a system developer would really appreciate it. I on the other hand only want the usual GCC tools to make my own 3rd party apps. So Arch is fine for me. Some people want all the fruit, without the maintenance and that's why they use ubuntu instead. Provided they have a fast machine.

[b15hop]

http://funroll-loops.info/

This was the same problem I had with Gentoo. Arch was actually faster in the end anyway. No compiling let alone care about flags. Unless I needed to, then I had AUR.

[energyman]

You'll find that, as a gamer, you want to be able to Alt-Tab out of your game if you are getting pwned (read = dead, wait for the next round), or not and go afk, so you can quickly check what server IP's are, or in a MMORPG you might want to check some world map with a lot of useful info. Maybe you are playing a game and you want to see how to max out your kills so what strats to use and whatever, leaderboards...

In Windows your GUI has to be somewhat reloaded and causes the game app to pauze and when getting back into the game you'll get a black screen/freeze for a couple of seconds. This is irritating as hell.

So I for one will go ahead and call it a very welcome gaming feature. There should be a GUI checkbox option created somewhere called "DIsable Compiz when running fullscreen OpenGL" though for people with a 10yo GPU.


How fanbias'd...

just use kwin. kwin suspends 3d effects automatically when a fullscreen 3d apps starts.

But hey, kwin is done by people who care...

[energyman]

http://funroll-loops.info/

yawn. Welcome to 2003.

[energyman]

As per the one Intel guys recommendation I use these compliter flags:
CFLAGS="-Os -march=native -pipe -msse -msse2 -msse3 -mssse3 -mfpmath=sse -fomit-frame-pointer -fstrength-reduce -fexpensive-optimizations -finline-functions -funroll-loops -foptimize-register-move"

That is with i686 architecture.

Disclaimer: Compiling on the Atom isn't too bad, but note that I didn't use the box as a desktop, but as an always-on-server, so there is very little packages installed.

Disclaimer2: Sounds like you think your girfriend will kill you... Is it really worth it for a 10-20% speedup?

and if you don't want to compile on the atom:
set up a chroot on a more powerfull box.
do the compiling there.
make the chroot a BINHOST.
set the binhost on the atom
pull all the precompiled packages from the binhost to the atom.
Install time: less then ubuntu.

[RealNC]

lol .

[pingufunkybeat]

I really don't know where all the gentoo myths come from.

Any speed advantage coming from gentoo (or Arch or similar) is far more likely to come from better system administration (if you put in the necessary work and know how to do it) than crazy CFLAGS.

The advantages of gentoo are:

- easy access to bleeding edge software, which integrates nicely into the system
- configurability, allowing you to have the system exactly the way you like it
- excellent and knowledgeable community and documentation

I really don't know anybody who runs gentoo just to get 3 more fps by using -funroll-loops. Some kids probably get attracted because of that "reason", but soon find out that it's too much work.

Gentoo is fantastic for people who want a source-based, moderate maintenance distribution with full access under the hood. Once you learn enough to maintain it, it really is not that much effort -- the main problem is the learning process that takes a while. Not everybody wants this, and this is perfectly fine. There are other good distributions, ranging from Ubuntu to Debian and RHEL, catering for all sorts of users.

I simply don't get this childish bickering. :/

[pingufunkybeat]

Just a quick note (no edit).

The disadvantages of gentoo are:

- increased complexity compared to SuSE or Ubuntu
- compile time

Personally, I can live with these (I have a Quad-core phenom), but it's something everyone can decide on their own and I can accept that some people would prefer a different distro.

Personally, I'd rather take some compile time and complexity over pulling my hair out with Ubuntu after trying to customise it in a way that is not allowed (tm).

[migizi]

I simply don't get this childish bickering. :/

Bickering comes down to different ideals on how the system should run. The greatest strength with Linux is the choice, but that is also the greatest weakness.

I started on Gentoo and learned a lot. After not having the option to dual boot I had to stop using it. A few years later I started up using Ubuntu. It was a great thing for me to start back on since it required little work. I then moved to Arch because I found it easier to build the system the way I wanted than try to strip a system down. Especially after I tried to remove a package that was part of the ubuntu-dektop package. It ended up breaking my system.

Every distro will fill a niche in the community that people are looking for. Everyone will end up bias toward one distro or another over time. Everyone with those biases will view any other distro as bad because it isn't theirs.