[ltp] Re: Which distro for ThinkPad T400s

[Pedro Ribeiro]

2010/2/25 Karsten K=F6nig <remur@gmx.net>:
> 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 of=
ten
> yield very interesting information, in this case ubuntu 32bit vs 64bit ke=
rnel,
> 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=3Darticle&item=3Dubuntu_32_pae&num=
=3D1
>
> 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 b=
eeing
> flash, but it only acts up on closing firefox, and only in very rare case=
s.
> 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, l=
et'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 T=
400,
> but as others suggested this basicly boils down to taste now, I also enjo=
y
> using Arch Linux for example.
>
>
> Karsten
> --
> The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
> http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad
>

I can only speak from my experience, and I use Debian testing/squeeze
64 bit on my T400.
The only major problem is the fact that flash seems to crash a lot and
takes up a lot of CPU. Apart from that, I think there is a marked
performance increase in relation to Debian 32 bit.

 The explanation for this is easy - besides the kernel as referred
above, all userland packages are compiled with SSE2 instructions
instead the regular X87.

I do not recommend Debian unstable until you have a lot of Debian
experience - once you go unstable you can never go back (without
reinstalling of course) and you can always go from testing to stable
or unstable.

Regards,
Pedro