[Preston] Some basic Linux questions

[Richard Revis]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Tuesday 07 Jan 2003 6:57 pm, Guy Heatley wrote:

> When you install a binary (rpm, deb etc) somebody somewhere has compile=
d it
> for you on a particular machine with a particular processor. Machine co=
de
> can be optimised for a particular achitecture (there are new machine co=
de
> instructions on newer processors) and if you compile you own programs f=
rom
> source it will be optimised for your machine rather than a generic IBM =
PC.

However people also compile RPMs for different architectures - you quite =
often=20
see RPMs for i686+, and Mandrakes are i586+ while Red Hats tend to be i38=
6+.

My new gentoo install has all been compiled with --march athlon-xp, which=
 is=20
about as specific as you can get if I understand this correctly (and I ma=
y=20
not), but the reason I am building from source is not so much the speed=20
difference (as it has taken me several days to get everything going prope=
rly,=20
which will probaby eat up those few seconds saved at run time) but more t=
o=20
get a better understanding of how the system works at a lower level. It i=
s=20
also far more fun than just installing RH8 for a certain type of masochis=
t=20
:o)

- --=20
Richard Revis
Outgoing e-mail is signed with my public PGP key
You may obtain a copy of my key at http://key.revis.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE+Gyfb9wKsh92eF6ERAiWnAJ0TFy8Q85WkC6h+FofKwFwRU5ke6ACcDvJX
AtSjNU9Woga2jqssd/uQDSo=3D
=3DjY97
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----