Gentoo Linux faster app-load than (Mandrake|Fedora)

[Owen Taylor]

On Thu, 2003-10-09 at 10:41, Mark Mielke wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 09, 2003 at 10:08:30AM -0400, Owen Taylor wrote:
> > What is somewhat amusing about the test is that the one major 
> > advantage of the Gentoo approach is that you *could* create two
> > otherwise identical systems except for compiler flags quite easily,
> > something that would be fairly hard with more conventional 
> > systems.
> 
> > But the tester hasn't (as far as I can see) done this, and just
> > jumps to the conclusion that compiler flags are responsible for the
> > major speed differences.
> 
> This perspective is a little cynical. The tester was quite clear that
> the results *can* be disputed. It goes further to point out that Mandrake
> may be running more services (i.e. the free RAM is not equivalent), and
> it also points to the kernel patch set (i.e. not just the compiler flags).
> 
> There are a number of things about many Linux distributions, including
> RedHat, that are not fully optimal. These sorts of reports shouldn't be
> accepted as proof that RedHat/Fedora needs to revolutionize how it works,
> but these sorts of reports should not be ignored, or written off, either.
> 
> I will echo the sentiments of the original poster: Please take these sorts
> of reports into account. Read between the lines, or whatever is useful, but
> don't write them off.

I think you completely missed the point of my email; what my mail
was saying was:

 - It's interesting that such large speed differences exist
   in the testing.

 - I'm a little skeptical that the compiler had much to do with it.

 - Gentoo would be a great platform for verifying that one way or 
   the other, so it would be great if those tests were extended
   to do an apples-versus-apples comparison with only compiler
   flags changed.

Regards,
						Owen