[SOLVED] Use 32-bit Slackware? Post here to let the developers know!
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32-bit Slackware is still useful on a small VPS (up to 2GB RAM), I do have one from Linode (512MB RAM).
Quote:
Originally Posted by audriusk
Also I'll repeat myself, that 32-bit Slackware is a smart choice for a small VPS with a limited amount of RAM, if one wants to squeeze more out of it (64-bit applications consume more RAM).
Yep, exactly the same situation for me. I'm also with Linode by the way.
I am against moving to i686. Why would you do it ? People still want to run old hardware with Slackware and that's the whole point of the 32-bit part. If you want performance you choose 64-bit.
Not true for the VPS scenario. In fact it isn't true for those with hardware that can't do 64-Bit either but are using i686.
With regards to my VPS, as mentioned previously my linode package is the cheapest one they offer and hence has 512Mb of RAM allocated to it. audriusk has the same plan and hence the same situation, as do others I am sure. Many of the entry level VPS packages provide very little RAM. When using one of these it is better to run 32-Bit is it not?
Regarding those that have actual i686 chips (not x86_64), they would get better performance (in some apps) if Slackware was complied for i686, without being held back for i486. I know that Slackware uses -O2 -march=i486 -mtune=i686 but if I understand correctly full optimisation for i686 would likely be better for those users.
Regarding those that have actual i686 chips (not x86_64), they would get better performance (in some apps) if Slackware was complied for i686, without being held back for i486. I know that Slackware uses -O2 -march=i486 -mtune=i686 but if I understand correctly full optimisation for i686 would likely be better for those users.
As you can see here, the performance increase when compiling for i686 instead of i486 is in most benchmarks negligible, as long as you don't compile for your specific CPU (including advanced features like MMX, SSE, ...).
For those people it would be nice if Slackware could be compiled from scratch with -march=native, but since that is (currently?) not possible people that really need the performance on their 32 bit machines should use Gentoo or other source based distros.
Although I too would be interested, just for fun, in a Slackware that can be compiled from scratch .
Sure it isn't massive but there is some performance gain. From the summary of the article you linked to:
Code:
The results of the tests show that the biggest jump in performance is from i486 to i686 and that there is not much extra to gain from then on.
That said, I am not actually suggesting Slackware dropping i486 and moving to i686. I was just playing devil's advocate.
However on the VPS side I do think 32-Bit continues to be reasonable choice if you only have a limited amount of RAM available for the package you are renting. So the reasons for keeping 32-Bit are not just old hardware or because of certain 32-Bit only packages (where the user does not want to consider multilib).
However on the VPS side I do think 32-Bit continues to be reasonable choice if you only have a limited amount of RAM available for the package you are renting.
Not only on VPS. I use an Atom 330 with 1GB of RAM and it runs 32 bit just fine, no need for 64 bit here and since the bottleneck here is the network connection I wouldn't get better performance with 64 bit.
For those people it would be nice if Slackware could be compiled from scratch with -march=native, but since that is (currently?)
Although I too would be interested, just for fun, in a Slackware that can be compiled from scratch .
I tried once , needs too much work to add -march=native
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