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nestal
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Joined: 11 Apr 2003
Posts: 34
Location: Milky Way
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 Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:06 pm Post subject: Comparing Xubuntu and Gentoo |
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Recently I installed Xubuntu in my old laptop (which is a Samsung Q25) with Xubuntu. I just wanted to try out this Ubuntu that everybody is talking about. I used to run Xfce with Gentoo just fine on this old laptop, so I expect it should be fine with Xubuntu.
It turns out that I was wrong. It is a Pentium-M 1.4GHz with 256MB of RAM. I need to run 3 instances of firefox in different profiles on it. It took about 5 seconds to switch windows (the Alt-Tab thing)! I have to wait for the windows to redraw slowly.
After a week I can't stand it. I reinstall Gentoo on it. I tried to make everything minimal, i.e. -gnome -kde, you know  , which is only possible in Gentoo. And now it runs as fast as a rocket! No more delay in redrawing windows. I can even switch desktop instantly!
I guess Xubuntu still starts gnome services in order to make their network manager applet to work. Those stuff eat out a lot of system RAM make my laptop do a lot of paging.
Any other clue? |
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Eckos
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Joined: 25 Jan 2008
Posts: 197
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
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| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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Well thats what you getting running with the ubuntu crowd
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d2_racing
Bodhisattva
Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 13047
Location: Ste-Foy,Canada
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| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:59 pm Post subject: Re: Comparing Xubuntu and Gentoo |
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| nestal wrote: | .After a week I can't stand it. I reinstall Gentoo on it. I tried to make everything minimal, i.e. -gnome -kde, you know , which is only possible in Gentoo. And now it runs as fast as a rocket! No more delay in redrawing windows. I can even switch desktop instantly!
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With a minimal OS well configured, you can make miracles  |
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NathanZachary
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Joined: 30 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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I put Xubuntu on a laptop way older than that one, and I ran into a more amusing issue: it took almost 4 minutes to go from logging in to being functional. Gentoo with Xfce, though, fairly usable on an old P2 233.
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yngwin
Retired Dev
Joined: 19 Dec 2002
Posts: 4572
Location: Suzhou, China
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:30 am Post subject: Re: Comparing Xubuntu and Gentoo |
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| nestal wrote: | | I need to run 3 instances of firefox in different profiles on it. |
What do you expect... I run Kubuntu on my old P3/600MHz laptop with 192MB ram. It isn't blazing fast, but it works well. Of course, turn off all services that you don't need.
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d2_racing
Bodhisattva
Joined: 25 Apr 2005
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Location: Ste-Foy,Canada
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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With Gentoo, you start with almost 0 services, but for the others distro, there a lot of services that a person doesn't need 50% of the time, so theses things can slow down a computer.
Last edited by d2_racing on Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:56 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Naib
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6051
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:48 pm Post subject: Re: Comparing Xubuntu and Gentoo |
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| nestal wrote: |
I guess Xubuntu still starts gnome services in order to make their network manager applet to work. Those stuff eat out a lot of system RAM make my laptop do a lot of paging.
Any other clue? |
uuur, I would of at least expected them to use wicd (networkmanager-like with gnome stuff stripped, I use it on my archlinux-based laptop)
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Bill Cosby
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Joined: 22 Jan 2005
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Location: Aachen, Germany
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:42 pm Post subject: |
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If you want a more or less slim version of Ubunut, just install the commandline system, and then use apt-get to install X and xfce, it should be as fast as Gentoo then, almost no services are running.
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Naib
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:47 pm Post subject: |
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or... just use Arch (if gentoo isn't an option)
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d2_racing
Bodhisattva
Joined: 25 Apr 2005
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Location: Ste-Foy,Canada
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Yep, Arch can be fun, because it has the same philosophy for services. |
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NathanZachary
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Joined: 30 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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Arch is a decent alternative because the bulk of their repository is binary-based instead of source-based, which can be a blessing on a slower machine.
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Naib
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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| kalos wrote: | | Arch is a decent alternative because the bulk of their repository is binary-based instead of source-based, which can be a blessing on a slower machine. |
yup thats why I use it on my eeePC and my slow CPU server (gentoo for fun on main desktop)
Sure I could use my main desktop as the main workhorse to build the other two and maintain it that way but... horses for courses
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d2_racing
Bodhisattva
Joined: 25 Apr 2005
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Location: Ste-Foy,Canada
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| Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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| kalos wrote: | | Arch is a decent alternative because the bulk of their repository is binary-based instead of source-based, which can be a blessing on a slower machine. |
In fact, I like Arch a lot on my old coucou, because compiling Gentoo on that box was just crazy. |
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nestal
n00b
Joined: 11 Apr 2003
Posts: 34
Location: Milky Way
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| Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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To my surprise it didn't take long to install a such a minimal Gentoo system. It took only a few hours. I guess Xubuntu was so slow because the 3 firefoxes took all the memory.
Seems like compiling things doesn't use a lot of memory (except when you compile C++ source e.g. KDE), so installing Gentoo to my old laptop isn't that slow. In addition I didn't install large amount of apps cuts the compile time even more. |
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pathfinder
l33t
Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Posts: 731
Location: Barcelona, Spain
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| Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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would you mind posting your
/etc/make.conf
keywords, mask and use files?
cause i have a similar laptop, and the disk just got burnt. So I have to buy another, and I should try to recover the old system, or I should install a new one. But you know, once you have everything fine on it, it s a little annoying having to do everything again. Added I m not sure it will really be fast...
A question. If I copy all the FS in a new disk, and copy t back to the laptop, will get rid of the defragmentation problem? |
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NathanZachary
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Joined: 30 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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| d2_racing wrote: | | kalos wrote: | | Arch is a decent alternative because the bulk of their repository is binary-based instead of source-based, which can be a blessing on a slower machine. |
In fact, I like Arch a lot on my old coucou, because compiling Gentoo on that box was just crazy. |
I hear you. On this old laptop, it took almost 25 minutes to compile vixie-cron.
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steveL
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NathanZachary
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| Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 1:47 am Post subject: |
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I know binhost was an option, but the reality is that I would never use the laptop anyway, so away to the closet dungeon it went.
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“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
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Urban Cowboy
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Joined: 09 Oct 2007
Posts: 64
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| Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 4:25 am Post subject: |
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What, exactly, does xubuntu have that gentoo doesn't? An easier means of installation?
.. part of me thinks I am about to be sorry I asked.
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Bill Cosby
Guru
Joined: 22 Jan 2005
Posts: 430
Location: Aachen, Germany
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| Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Naib wrote: | | or... just use Arch (if gentoo isn't an option) |
Arch lacks the quantity of packages, and, more disputed, also quality.
| Urban Cowboy wrote: | | What, exactly, does xubuntu have that gentoo doesn't? An easier means of installation? |
Faster install times (of anything not just the system), and real package-management.
It's drawbacks are that more disk space is used, because you can't trim the installed packages, with todays harddisks this is mostly no problem though.
I am a purist, that's why I like Gentoo better, I also don't like it when packages get installed, I don't know what they are doing, that's why I like Gentoo better, but, from a more pragmatic point of view, using *buntu is way more comfortable, and has a very productive environment, which is certainly superior to Gentoo.
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SLBMEH
Apprentice
Joined: 16 Aug 2003
Posts: 299
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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| Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:39 pm Post subject: |
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| kalos wrote: | | I put Xubuntu on a laptop way older than that one, and I ran into a more amusing issue: it took almost 4 minutes to go from logging in to being functional. Gentoo with Xfce, though, fairly usable on an old P2 233. |
Similar scenario, but with kubuntu... Halfway through the login delay I started looking for a gentoo boot disc and returned before it completed. At that point I had seen enough. Back to gentoo with fluxbox i went.
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