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Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

From	Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.misc
Subject	Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Date	2026-05-12 17:49 +0100
Organization	terraraq NNTP server
Message-ID	<wwvtsscd14a.fsf@LkoBDZeT.terraraq.uk> (permalink)
References	<18ae97fc33e48f9d$12583$2923323$802601b3@news.usenetexpress.com> <n6eo05Fivs4U1@mid.individual.net> <10ttm9k$1g1he$6@dont-email.me> <YISdnZwpgvMbDp_3nZ2dnZfqnPgAAAAA@giganews.com> <10tvbbj$1vrb3$1@dont-email.me>

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Rich <rich@example.invalid> writes:
> I used to build my own kernels, but this was back in the days of 
> systems with 512MB of total RAM and i586 class CPU's running at 
> 150-200Mhz.  Back in those days it /felt/ like there was a speedup by 
> building the kernel against the specific CPU one had in one's box, and 
> with the 512MB RAM days, there *was* a benefit of stripping out drivers 
> that one did not use, as a smaller kernel left more RAM available for 
> one's applications.
>
> But somewhere along the path from i586 class CPU's to i3/i5/i7 class 
> CPU's, and 512MB ram to 24G RAM it became a case where the performance 
> increase from "build with CPU optimizations for a speific CPU" and 
> "Kernel is smaller" was no longer noticable.  The standard kernel 
> Slackware built felt just as fast as the custom built kernel, and the 
> difference in memory usage was a tiny sliver of the total, so it wasn't 
> worth it to continue.  So somewhere around the "Pentium 3" to Core era 
> I quit compiling custom kernels for myself as I no longer felt like I 
> could detect the benefits from doing so.

It’s fairly straightforward today to build performance critical code
multiple times for different targets and select the best one at runtime.
This includes using intrinsics, vector instructions or assembler
selected for particular classes of CPU, as well as just giving the
compiler a narrower target and letting it get on with it.

I don’t know how much the Linux kernel does that, offhand, but as a
general statement, there are better options today than expecting end
users to rebuild from source for their specific CPU.

-- 
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

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The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-05-11 19:00 +0000
  Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-11 20:10 +0100
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-05-12 18:11 +0200
      Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:38 +0100
  Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-05-11 20:12 +0100
    Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-11 22:47 +0000
      Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-11 22:42 -0400
        Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-12 13:52 +0000
          Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-12 17:49 +0100
            Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-12 22:00 +0000
              Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 04:47 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:43 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 17:40 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:41 +0000
              Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:56 +0200
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:56 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:52 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 22:24 +0200
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:34 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:48 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 22:25 +0200
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2026-05-14 10:00 +1000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:00 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:45 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 11:25 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 11:38 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 12:28 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 12:40 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 11:16 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:42 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-14 01:12 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:09 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-14 12:54 +0200
          Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-12 18:55 +0200
          Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-12 22:19 +0000
            Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:56 +0000
              Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 17:45 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 18:50 +0100
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 19:09 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 22:34 +0200
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-05-13 21:34 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 19:06 +0000
  Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-11 21:41 +0000
  Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2026-05-11 14:59 -0700
  Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-12 03:53 +0000
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-12 00:39 -0400
      Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-12 23:02 +0000
        Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-12 20:49 -0400
  Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users makendo <makendo@makendo.invalid> - 2026-05-12 12:47 +0800
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-12 01:26 -0400

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