How much runtime loss using binary over locally compiled package?
 

Hi,

I am sure this question has been asked many times. But I cannot find an answer.

I am using several Debian penguins on Pentium/Celeron machines. I installed through network, binary packages. I rebuilt kernel to customize.

I somewhat think binary packages (.deb) are complied to 8086 or 80386. If I compile packages locally (gentoo way) -download source, make .deb and install, how much faster will my penguins swim? Also, glib needs to be recompiled??

Happy Penguins!

That's tough to say. Some code optimizes well, some doesn't. If you ask a Gentoo user, they'll probably say "enough to be worth it", but if you ask others they may say the difference is negligible. Most distributions compile their executables for a generic i386, but most computers sold today have, at minimum, the 586 instruction set available to them. And if you were to locally compile something, glib would be a good choice. Since many different programs will load glib, a small performance gain there will be magnified. So, perhaps it would be fair to say that custom compiles are worth it for libraries like glib, but perhaps not for applications like Firefox.

I can't answer your question. But I can say that I tried to "emerge" OpenOffice.org on a Gentoo-based distro, and finally cancelled out of the compilation after 15 hours with no end in sight.

My conclusion was that some negligible amount of speed-up does not make it worth tying up your computer for the number of hours it takes to compile a large program (like Firefox or OpenOffice.org) that you could install from a binary in minutes.

AFAIK, the difference is nearly impossible to detect on desktop use.
Unless you do heavy weigh number crunching, not worth the trouble, IMO.

Hya,

Thanks. I will stay with binary packages, unless I need some special configuration.

This is because wiDoEser do not have head, they do not think, ponder, just pay money for non functional junk... There is no organ to ache, if no head.