[ltp] Re: Which distro for ThinkPad T400s

[Adrian Bastholm]

Flash takes a lot of CPU on 32-bit also, on my system about 50%.
Fortunately Youtube isn't running all the time. And you can go back
from unstable to testing by using apt pinning (
http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html ) you give the "testing"
repository a preference number of over 1100 and apt will downgrade
your system. I'm the kind of guy who keeps on screwing and tinkering
with his system, forcing upgrades and removes, so I've had hundreds of
serious crashes, most of which resulted in reinstalls. Since I started
using Debian, the reinstall rate has dropped radically. Even though I
broke my package system on several occasions, I could always fix it
somehow, so compared to RPM-based distros, I personally find it more
user-friendly, or user-error-friendly.

On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 11:25 PM, Pedro Ribeiro <pedrib@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2010/2/25 Karsten K=C3=B6nig <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 < 4G=
B,
>>> > (because of smaller pointers), but doesn't that mean you are giving u=
p
>>> > 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 o=
ften
>> yield very interesting information, in this case ubuntu 32bit vs 64bit k=
ernel,
>> 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 =
beeing
>> flash, but it only acts up on closing firefox, and only in very rare cas=
es.
>> 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 enj=
oy
>> 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.
>
> =C2=A0The 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
> --
> The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
> http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad
>



--=20
V=C3=A4nliga h=C3=A4lsningar / Kind regards,
Adrian Bastholm

I would change the world, but they won't give me the sourcecode