[mythtv-users] gentoo, latest mythtv - mythfrontend has no text

[Brian Wood]

On Wednesday 01 July 2009 08:09:18 Phill Wiggin wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 11:00 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com> wrote:
> > On Tuesday 30 June 2009 18:38:54 Brian Wood wrote:
> > > Gentoo is good for some purposes, not good for others.
> >
> > s/Gentoo/<any distribution of your choosing>/
> >
> > > But getting binaries compiled for your machine, instead of generic ones
> >
> > that
> >
> > > are supposed to work for anyone, is a plus. For example, using
> > > "optimize
> >
> > for
> >
> > > size" helps a lot if you're running a cache-starved CPU like the VIA
> >
> > chips.
> >
> > My thing is this: the systems that benefit the most from such
> > optimization are the ones most painful to compile on, because they're
> > so damned slow to begin with. A 1% performance gain means squat on a
> > quad-core box. But you really need something fast with a distcc to
> > build on a system (such as the previously mentioned quad-core) with
> > bearable compile times unless you're incredibly patient. (I'm not.)
> > So why not just spend a few bucks on something faster and save yourself
> > the pain and suffering? I mean, the Dell Studio Hybrid serving as my
> > current frontend has a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, etc., runs
> > quieter than an EPIA I've since retired (replaced the board w/an Intel
> > D945GCLF2), and cost a mere $400. Its got more than enough oomph to
> > handle (most of the) 1080p h.264 material I've thrown at it, without
> > having to eke out an extra 1% performance by optimizing the bejesus
> > out of everything -- it runs stock x86_64 Fedora 11 right now.
>
> But, let's face it.. "a mere $400" isn't exactly chump-change. For an
> aweful lot of folks, there's no _way_ they're going to be able to just toss
> out $400 to pick up new hardware.  If you can breathe life into an older
> system by taking a little compile-time, you can resuscitate and old
> under-powered machine and possibly get more use out of it.
>
> I'm a Gentoo user and I buy hardware more often than I should. (And $400
> still isn't "a mere" amount of money for me.)  The above argument may not
> exactly apply to me... But it does apply to many.

I could spend $400 if I had to, but lately it seems I have more fun "eking out 
an extra 1% by optimizing the bejeesus" out of older hardware.

It's better for the planet as well, the number of older systems that are going 
into landfills is staggering, and these machines are fully capable of 
performing useful functions.

MythTV aside, a 1Ghz. PIII class machine can do everything most consumers need 
(with the possible exception of gaming). Witness the popularity of the 
netbooks, which have about the computing capability of a machine of 10 years 
ago.

But the marketing, both hardware and software, is based on continuous 
updating, more or less like automobiles in the 1950s and 1960s USA, and we 
all see where that ended up.

With the advent of cloud-based browser-centric computing, the era of 
continuous upgrade cycles is, hopefully, coming to an end.

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org