javier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I am a new Debian user. I used to work in Mandrake and there the x86 > packages are compiled for i586, while in Debian they are compiled for > i386. From my experience, I know you can improve the performance > recompiling the kernel for your particular machine architecture, but I > am not sure about how much you will improve the overall performace > recompiling also some of the packages (as for example glibc). I would > like to know how you expect this to affect performance in new > computers with PIV and AthlonXP processors.
Common wisdom seems to be that, with some limited exceptions, recompiling for your specific hardware is more of a pain than the performance benefit is really worth. Few things in normal use seem to be actively CPU-bound anyways (for example, compiles on my work machine are visibly bound by the latency of NFS file access). This question gets asked somewhat frequently, though, so you might look in the archives on http://lists.debian.org/ to see what other people have suggested. (The most notable exception I can think of involves performing certain crypto operations on SPARCs, where newer chips add instructions that make ssh several times faster. There are also a couple of cases involving MMX instructions on x86, but these by and large have separate packages for builds supporting specific hardware.) -- David Maze [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://people.debian.org/~dmaze/ "Theoretical politics is interesting. Politicking should be illegal." -- Abra Mitchell -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
