[ale] Which Distro should I use?

[Jeff Hubbs]

On Thu, 2003-01-30 at 09:13, ChangingLINKS.com wrote:
> 1. Is Gentoo "faster?" 
> Someone on this list mentioned that Gentoo may be noticably "faster" than 
> RedHat. I have a need for more speed, and I am not wanting to research why 
> RedHat 8.0 is crashing on the two boxes that I have it on. I have heard 
> positive things about Gentoo, and I like the apt-get functionality that I 
> added to RedHat (which is allegedly more like how Gentoo manages things).
> Also, while I am at it. Microsoft had some sort of 3rd party software that 
> would help you get it to run faster (by telling you what's running and giving 
> tips on what you can remove). 

A lot of people seem to be kicking RH 8.0 to the curb for various
reasons, myself included.  Please don't take that as a ringing
non-endorsement of RH in general or RH 8.0 in particular; I chalk it up
to Linux growing in capability very quickly and having growing pains as
a result.  Some distros are slow and deliberate (coughDEBIANcough) and
some are not; in the end, we get better stuff.

If you have a need to maximize speed on a box, Gentoo is a decent
starting point, as it makes no attempt whatsoever to be a
Swiss-Army-knife desktop box and therefore runs every daemon under the
sun.  However, even having said that, you may find that your real answer
lies in Gentoo plus bleeding-edge kernels, including ones that have
folded in the so-called "pre-emptive kernel patch."  

As for finding what's running, top in a console is as good as anything,
I suppose.  In general, Linux distros assume you know what you're doing,
unlike Windows, so don't count on tips for what to remove.  However,
looking at what's running and investigating what each process is (man,
info, Google) is often enough to help you judge.

> 
> 2. Is there something like that for Linux?
>  I want to try to streamline my box to try to get more speed.

See above.

> 
> 3. I am stuck with the hardware that I have (just bought another AMD computer 
> - by the way be greatful that you guys live where hardware is cheap. Stuff is 
> 30-50% more here.) but I can add more RAM. 
> 
> Will doubling the RAM make a noticable difference?

Only if you watch the system real carefully during its expected loading
and you determine that it's doing a lot of swapping.  It's not a very
big issue just how MUCH swap space is taken up - what's important is
swap I/O.  Things really go to hell if significant swap I/O is using the
same drive and/or disk controller (more true for IDE but also true for
SCSI) as disk I/O related to what the machine is trying to do.  

> 
> Drew
> 
> 
> On Thursday 30 January 2003 06:22, David Corbin wrote:
> > root wrote:
> > >I've been using Redhat for about a year now(please don't hate me) ;) and
> > >I've decided I should try another distro.  I'm interested in getting the
> > >level 1 LPI certification, I just wanted some input as to which would be
> > >the best for me to try out.  I can get my way around but I still have a
> > >lot to learn.  Any input would be greatly apprciated.  Thanks, Nick
> > >
> > >_______________________________________________
> > >Ale mailing list
> > >Ale at ale.org
> > >http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >
> > Well, any answer you get is likely to be Religous in nature :).  Debian
> > is significantly different from RedHat, and will give you some broader
> > exposure.  Besides, it's better :)
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 
> -- 
> Wishing you Happiness, Joy, and Laughter,
> Drew Brown
> http://www.ChangingLINKS.com
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale


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