[ltp] Re: Which distro for ThinkPad T400s

[Karsten König]

Am Donnerstag, 25. Februar 2010 22:00:06 schrieb Christoph Bier:
> Richard Neill schrieb am 25.02.2010 18:49:
> > Christoph Bier wrote:
> >> Petar Milin schrieb am 25.02.2010 16:53:
> >>> Hello!
> >>> I am now in doubt which distro to use for my T400s: Debian testing
> >>> (amd64 net-install) or Ubuntu 9.10? Which one suits this T-version?
> >>
> >> I'd go for Ubuntu 9.10 (32 bit) since I abandoned Debian about six
> >> years ago. Others will tell you to go for Debian (or even other
> >> distributions) ... It depends on your needs and preferences.
> >
> > Why would one use a 32-bit distro?
> >
> > I know that 32-bit distros are more memory-efficient if you have < 4GB,
> > (because of smaller pointers), but doesn't that mean you are giving up
> > on all the native advantages of 64-bit CPUs vs an i586, notably the
> > extra registers?
> 
> AFAICS 64-bit distros don't run as smoothly as 32-bit distros do.
> See also Ted's posting. YMMV. And to be honest I don't know whether
> I'd take any noticeable advantage from extra registers. I have
> installed 4 GB of RAM in my X200s running a 32-bit kernel with PAE.
> I just told Petar for which distro *I* would go.
> 
> Best
> Christoph
> 

Phoronix might not be as reputable as lwn but the test series they run often 
yield very interesting information, in this case ubuntu 32bit vs 64bit kernel, 
and the 64bit kernel outperforms 32 in quite some areas while otherwise 
drawing a tie with the 32bit kernel
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_32_pae&num=1

I am also running 64bit kernel and userland now (openSUSE btw) and haven't 
found a flaw regarding choice of architecture, the only exception still beeing 
flash, but it only acts up on closing firefox, and only in very rare cases.
Still flash shouldn't be the deal breaker here, it's one of the worst 
maintained pieces of software that is deployed on basicly every system, let's 
not get tied down by such awful software.

The big programs for engineers like matlab and xilinx ise in my case are full 
64bit and seem to also take advantage of it.

Oh and about the distribution, I am happily running openSUSE 11.2 on my T400, 
but as others suggested this basicly boils down to taste now, I also enjoy 
using Arch Linux for example.


Karsten