[ale] Which Distro should I use?

[Geoffrey]

Don't take this wrong, but I'll start this by saying that based on your 
previous experiences, you should not go to gentoo.  It's really targeted 
at the highly knowledgeable Linux user.  By that I mean you really have 
to be in a Linux brain to appreciate the effort it will require.


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).

It will certainly be faster as it compiled on your machine and if 
properly configured, it will target your specific architecture.

Red Hat, as I recall still compiles to the lowest common denominator, 
386.  Mandrake and SuSE both compile to 586 or above.

Thus, Red Hat will probably not run into as many install problems, but 
the other dists. will likely run faster.  I don't know about Debian.

> 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).

And you found that it worked?

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

There are many ways to speed up your Linux box, but I don't know of a 
single package that does this for you.  There are sites on the internet 
that will give you suggestions as to how to do these things.  A lot of 
it depends on what you use your box for.  Huge swap partitions are of 
little use if you're reading email and browsing the web with 1/2 gig of 
memory.

More memory will generally speed up memory hungry processes.

hdparm is a good tool for tuning your hard drive, but I hesitate to 
mention it as there are options that are noted to be Dangerous.  If you 
play with hdparm, read the man page very well.  Don't complain if your 
box won't boot following aggressive use of hdparm.

You can tune your serial ports with setserial.  I'm sure there are other 
tools for tuning other parts of the OS.  There are kernel parameters 
that can be adjusted to fit the needs of a specific computer usage.

In general, most boxes are tuned to run relatively well without risking 
problems.

Beyond that there's overclocking and fun stuff like that, but with AMD 
processors you should be cautious.



> 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.

Mail order.

> 
> Will doubling the RAM make a noticable difference?

Depends on how much you started with and what you do with the box.  If 
you've got 128mb and you're doing multiple browser windows, gimp on 
large images and playing games, yes, you could benefit from more memory.

> 
> Drew

-- 
Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at 3times25.net

The latest, most widespread virus?  Microsoft end user agreement.
Think about it...

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