Comments on: To Gentoo or not to Gentoo? http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/11/21/to-gentoo-or-not-to-gentoo/ Stay curious! Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:56:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Jon Gerdes http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/11/21/to-gentoo-or-not-to-gentoo/#comment-18329 Jon Gerdes Sat, 15 May 2010 00:43:40 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=233#comment-18329 I have to disagree with the author on many points but basically it boils down to choice. I run many, many Linuxs of various flavours but my personal favourite is a penguin from the Falkland Islands. If MySQL runs like shit for him on Gentoo then there is a reason why! As someone who writes books on the subject, I'd hope he'd have the knowledge to publish bug reports - I'm sure they'd be received well and we'd all benefit. I don't know if it is relavent but I use MySQL for mail logging via rsyslog. On one of my customer's site they are the victim of rather a lot of attempts to relay. This means that rsyslog ends up doing an INSERT/UPDATE on a 20M record database several times per second. The box is a small Dell system with RAID 1 and 2Gb RAM. It does not even sweat over this. I accept that I'm not a proper DBA but this is pretty impressive to me. Mind you what is really impressive is Exim dealing with it - it has to spawn kids for each connection and do the various DNS look ups before rsyslog gets into the logging. ... and there are quite a few connections! I have to disagree with the author on many points but basically it boils down to choice. I run many, many Linuxs of various flavours but my personal favourite is a penguin from the Falkland Islands.

If MySQL runs like shit for him on Gentoo then there is a reason why! As someone who writes books on the subject, I’d hope he’d have the knowledge to publish bug reports – I’m sure they’d be received well and we’d all benefit.

I don’t know if it is relavent but I use MySQL for mail logging via rsyslog. On one of my customer’s site they are the victim of rather a lot of attempts to relay. This means that rsyslog ends up doing an INSERT/UPDATE on a 20M record database several times per second. The box is a small Dell system with RAID 1 and 2Gb RAM. It does not even sweat over this. I accept that I’m not a proper DBA but this is pretty impressive to me.

Mind you what is really impressive is Exim dealing with it – it has to spawn kids for each connection and do the various DNS look ups before rsyslog gets into the logging. … and there are quite a few connections!

]]> By: alex http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/11/21/to-gentoo-or-not-to-gentoo/#comment-13611 alex Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:58:16 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=233#comment-13611 i completely agree with the author. gentoo takes just too much time to maintain and keep up-to-date, especially if you have other things to do. i'm using linux for software development and simply can't afford to waste hours updating/fixing the system every week. if something breaks and you need to reinstall everything from scratch, that might take hours if not days - now imagine you have something urgent to do... alex i completely agree with the author.

gentoo takes just too much time to maintain and keep up-to-date, especially if you have other things to do. i’m using linux for software development and simply can’t afford to waste hours updating/fixing the system every week.

if something breaks and you need to reinstall everything from scratch, that might take hours if not days – now imagine you have something urgent to do…

alex

]]> By: Chris http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/11/21/to-gentoo-or-not-to-gentoo/#comment-4116 Chris Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:08:52 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=233#comment-4116 <p>When I started looking around for other distro's I ran across archlinux (http://archlinux.com). The major selling points for me is its package management application (called Pacman). This little app allows me to start from scratch and configure a new box in a 1/2 hour or less. I can ensure that all my boxes are the same. Upgrading is a breeze. The system is optimized for !686 hardware and will not run on anything older than a Pentium III - but that's fine for my needs. If you looking for a new disto, you should check this one out. Chris....</p> When I started looking around for other distro’s I ran across archlinux (http://archlinux.com). The major selling points for me is its package management application (called Pacman). This little app allows me to start from scratch and configure a new box in a 1/2 hour or less. I can ensure that all my boxes are the same.

Upgrading is a breeze. The system is optimized for !686 hardware and will not run on anything older than a Pentium III – but that’s fine for my needs.

If you looking for a new disto, you should check this one out.

Chris….

]]> By: Xaprb http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/11/21/to-gentoo-or-not-to-gentoo/#comment-3347 Xaprb Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:17:49 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=233#comment-3347 <p>Andrei, well spoken, and thanks very much for your thoughts. I have actually come around to something like this point of view since writing this article. Once I began to think of Gentoo as a meta-distribution, many of the things I mentioned began to make sense. I still don't use it myself, because -- not surprisingly -- I don't want to maintain my own distribution! That comes back to the "I don't want to solve the problems a distribution solves" point of my article.</p> <p>I am planning to benchmark MySQL so I can figure out how to properly compile it. All I need to do is set up a non-production machine for that.</p> Andrei, well spoken, and thanks very much for your thoughts. I have actually come around to something like this point of view since writing this article. Once I began to think of Gentoo as a meta-distribution, many of the things I mentioned began to make sense. I still don’t use it myself, because — not surprisingly — I don’t want to maintain my own distribution! That comes back to the “I don’t want to solve the problems a distribution solves” point of my article.

I am planning to benchmark MySQL so I can figure out how to properly compile it. All I need to do is set up a non-production machine for that.

]]> By: Andrei Gerasimenko http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/11/21/to-gentoo-or-not-to-gentoo/#comment-3346 Andrei Gerasimenko Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:42:16 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=233#comment-3346 <p>The post is about personal experience with Gentoo. It is a perfect post, since the type of the person, his experience, and his reactions to that experience are crystal clear. Unfortunately, the assumptions the author based his reactions on are incorrect.</p> <p>Gentoo is a meta-distribution. That is, it is NOT a distribution. When somebody installs Gentoo, emerges some packages, runs some apps and gets the experience, he or she is not dealing with the Gentoo Linux distribution. They are dealing with the distribution they just created for themselves from Gentoo.</p> <p>I see only 2 issues in the post that are truly Gentoo related:</p> <p>How to install exactly what I want from MySQL? If Gentoo does not provide exactly what you want, then you are likely the first one who wants that. Just create your own ebuilt in an overlay and submit it to Gentoo. If you cannot, submit a bug. It may be a good idea to split MySQL into client, server, and admin ebuilds, maybe not.</p> <p>Properly compiled packages are slower than binary packages from the vendor. It is VERY interesting. The binaries have been compiled from different source, or there are some hidden defines, or a much better compiler than GCC has been used. You should have filed a bug or, better, ask MySQL how you should compile their source! </p> <p>All the rest is just the "I found I need help to figure out how to do ... properly" stuff. The author assumes he is using a distribution that should iron out all the issues for him. If it were the case, these complaints would be justified. Unfortunately, he is building a distribution himself and should compare his experience to that of the Red Hat or Mandriva development teams, not their end users. Gentoo allows an individual to compete against large companies and I find that amazing, but there is a price to pay.</p> <p>The "stable release cycles" complaint deserves separate treatment. Being a meta distribution, Gentoo does not need any release cycles, period. It is actually a request for another distribution, presumably Gentoo based, that will have release cycles.</p> <p>My point is that there are only 2 reasons to use Gentoo: the need to know what exactly is in the system, and the need and ABILITY to build a distribution that suits you better then any other. Any Gentoo reviewer should have that in mind.</p> <p>Now, what are my thoughts about "using it for MySQL servers"? Use if you need it. Use if you can. You will get better mileage if you cooperate with other people who want "MySQL servers" and derive your specialized distribution from Gentoo.</p> The post is about personal experience with Gentoo. It is a perfect post, since the type of the person, his experience, and his reactions to that experience are crystal clear. Unfortunately, the assumptions the author based his reactions on are incorrect.

Gentoo is a meta-distribution. That is, it is NOT a distribution. When somebody installs Gentoo, emerges some packages, runs some apps and gets the experience, he or she is not dealing with the Gentoo Linux distribution. They are dealing with the distribution they just created for themselves from Gentoo.

I see only 2 issues in the post that are truly Gentoo related:

How to install exactly what I want from MySQL? If Gentoo does not provide exactly what you want, then you are likely the first one who wants that. Just create your own ebuilt in an overlay and submit it to Gentoo. If you cannot, submit a bug. It may be a good idea to split MySQL into client, server, and admin ebuilds, maybe not.

Properly compiled packages are slower than binary packages from the vendor. It is VERY interesting. The binaries have been compiled from different source, or there are some hidden defines, or a much better compiler than GCC has been used. You should have filed a bug or, better, ask MySQL how you should compile their source!

All the rest is just the “I found I need help to figure out how to do … properly” stuff. The author assumes he is using a distribution that should iron out all the issues for him. If it were the case, these complaints would be justified. Unfortunately, he is building a distribution himself and should compare his experience to that of the Red Hat or Mandriva development teams, not their end users. Gentoo allows an individual to compete against large companies and I find that amazing, but there is a price to pay.

The “stable release cycles” complaint deserves separate treatment. Being a meta distribution, Gentoo does not need any release cycles, period. It is actually a request for another distribution, presumably Gentoo based, that will have release cycles.

My point is that there are only 2 reasons to use Gentoo: the need to know what exactly is in the system, and the need and ABILITY to build a distribution that suits you better then any other. Any Gentoo reviewer should have that in mind.

Now, what are my thoughts about “using it for MySQL servers”? Use if you need it. Use if you can. You will get better mileage if you cooperate with other people who want “MySQL servers” and derive your specialized distribution from Gentoo.

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