Is Arch Linux Really Faster Than Ubuntu?

[Ragas]

What makes Gentoo fast and light though, is not the compile optimizations but the USE flags which help you install the things you really need and keep your system tidy and clean.
USE flags is the real power of Gentoo, not the GCC flags.

Jeah, when youve got the right use-flags set it can give you an out of the box experience like Ubuntu after first booting.

[Ragas]

Boot speed of Ubuntu is NOT one of them, at least when compared to Gentoo :P

Actually it is. Ubuntu nowadays boots a lot faster than Gentoo.
I've tried to speedup gentoo with some tricks on boottime to but the bootsystem is somewhat static so that it is not possible to improve much.

don't get me wrong the parallel booting and so on sure are fine ... but right now they just aren't so new anymore as they were 3 Jears ago.

[pingufunkybeat]

I did come off as annoying and abrasive there, so I apologize.

[pingufunkybeat]

BTW, my work Ubuntu machine takes forever to boot, my home Gentoo is at the login screen in 10 seconds or so from the Grub screen,

But this is all anecdotal.

[deanjo]

It's not about superiority, it is about different choices for different people.

Over the 6 years that I've been running Gentoo, I've had to install exactly two times (once for each computer I've had during this time).

With the Ubuntu way, I would have had to reinstall 24 times -- twice a year, corresponding to the regular Ubuntu release schedule.

So the compile time needed the first time you install the distro is a moot point -- since it's a rolling distro, you only need to do it once.

I understand that some Gentoo script kiddies come off as abrasive and annoying and condescending, but do try to pick the right arguments.

Boot speed of Ubuntu is NOT one of them, at least when compared to Gentoo :P

I guess that is what you consider a "re-install". Most distros can upgrade to the latest and greatest release with a simple one line command. If you don't do any rolling upgrades in Gentoo for six months does that count as an "re-install"? What if a person runs development builds and continuously rolls with them, is each one a re-install?

[Apopas]

I guess that is what you consider a "re-install". Most distros can upgrade to the latest and greatest release with a simple one line command. If you don't do any rolling upgrades in Gentoo for six months does that count as an "re-install"? What if a person runs development builds and continuously rolls with them, is each one a re-install?

Even with LTS distros, after some years you won't be able to update your software. With Gentoo or Arch you are able to update them till the end of your days.

[pingufunkybeat]

He's referring to dist-upgrade.

Still, if it takes an hour every 6 months to upgrade your dist, then it adds up.

[Apopas]

Dist-upgrade?
So I have to wait 6-8 months each time to install the new goodies? Too harsh for my taste.

[deanjo]

Dist-upgrade?
So I have to wait 6-8 months each time to install the new goodies? Too harsh for my taste.

Nope, you can just use the development builds if you want or add repos to the current released development version of a package. On few of my systems I run the daily builds of the latest kernel, KDE, Alsa, ffmpeg, etc etc and a few other packages as well that actually have interesting development going on in them. Bonus is that I don't even have to do all the work to do that. Same idea, just two different means to an end.

[Apopas]

In Gentoo is automatic as well.
But what about the depedency hell? I hate more than windows to install unused software.