Fastest Linux Distro?

[AudioDope]

Hey i switched over to linux a few weeks ago, still a noob and everything, But i wanted to know which distro was the fastest but useful and powerful at the same time, because it also depends on kde/gnome and other stuff you install, so lets assume all the listed distrubutions are the latest version and are on default installations.

edit: knoppix = hd install obviously.

[Emon]

Gentoo :yes:

do a Stage 1 install

[Zerosleep]

Dude, what makes a distro "fast"? And you missed a few major distros for the poll. It's always a good idea to add an 'other' option. FreeBSD shouldn't really be on there either.

[AudioDope]

Dude, what makes a distro "fast"? And you missed a few major distros for the poll. It's always a good idea to add an 'other' option. FreeBSD shouldn't really be on there either.

if its not there then write it down..and did i say i was a linux expert?

[ericnmu]

Im no linux expert, but different distros have different highlights, not necessarily focusing on speed.

[krmathis]

I say Gentoo. Simply because you have full controll of what to install and its optimized for your hardware! :D

[finality]

Gentoo...

[jack_canada]

slackware

[Koto]

Gentoo for me :cool:

[scaredmogwai]

null vote.

Vector Linux

i'm running it on a old 233mhz laptop and its blazing fast.

[MrA]

null vote. LFS since I have even more control than Gentoo :p

[markwolfe Veteran]

They all have the potential to be just as fast as each other, as long as you have access to the source, and aren't afraid of recompiling.

If you have something like a Fedora install, you can disable unneeded services, and you can recompile your kernel for only the options you need. You can also specially recompile your apps from source to ensure that you are squeezing everything out of it.

Gentoo (depending on the stage you start with) is compiled almost from the ground up. Most of what a computer does is wait for the user, anyhow (unless you are into number-crunching apps like seti@home, or povray). It doesn't make a significant enough of a difference to me to warrant re-compiling everything.

[Zerosleep]

I say Gentoo. Simply because you have full controll of what to install and its optimized for your hardware! :D

That's mostly dependant on the user, not the distro.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Hey i switched over to linux a few weeks ago, still a noob and everything, But i wanted to know which distro was the fastest but useful and powerful at the same time, because it also depends on kde/gnome and other stuff you install, so lets assume all the listed distrubutions are the latest version and are on default installations.

edit: knoppix = hd install obviously.

Knoppix = Debian (for the most part).

The "speed" of each distro is dependant on what you are willing to compile for yourself. The more that the distro does for you then the slower it will be.

[dtanderson]

Other

Yoper

Alister

[neowin_hipster]

No offence but this is a stupid poll. It really depends on all of the packages, daemons, and whatever other purpose the distro serves. Oh, and freebsd is damn "fast" but its not GNU/Linux.

People will probably say gentoo because typically people run -09 -fomit-instructions, run practically no daemons, not use USE flags, enabling encryption, and other stuff.

[Rudy]

i fond gentoo much faster at starting programs

[mleonc]

I vote Knoppix bur for me is Slackware

[TrickFinlay2]

no slack?

[SaguratuS]

Gentoo stage 1, the only way to go.

Basically compiling it from the ground up with your own optimizations / customizations is what makes it so potentially speedy, and the fact that you only install what you need :happy:

[Dean W]

IM using Redhat and thats pretty fast

[SaguratuS]

IM using Redhat and thats pretty fast

:blink: :blink:

Try something else, you'll laugh at redhat ;)

[Tarzan2k]

Gentoo, stage 1 install. Haven't really tried RH after fiasco with RH 6.0, but I couldn't be happier with my current Linux. I'm not switching to Windows,...ever :devil:

[Rudy]

IM using Redhat and thats pretty fast

one thing that always turned me off linux is the speed, starting up the same app in windows or linux takes much longer in linux (firefox for example), now since i managed to get gentoo installed on my computer i find it much faster than redhat or mandrake but its still not quite as fast as windows....close but not quite

i just wish i could compile windows with cpu optimization....now that would be fast :devil:

[Shadrack]

Out of the distros I've tried: Fedora Core 1/2, Mandrake 9/10, and SuSE 9.1,

they are all about the same speed wise. Probably because they are all sorta the same kind of distro, the kind for noobs who don't want to mess with recompiling the kernel. I've recompiled a bunch of times, but I guess I don't have a good sense of what I'm doing, because I always run into problems.

If you want things to be snappy, try a light weight windows manager like fluxbox. I've found Gnome to be faster on some hardware then KDE, but it really comes down to your video card. Older video cards have some problems with the newest KDE in my experience.

When it comes to boot time, Windows XP is the fastest booting modern OS next to Windows Mobile 2003 (when you have to reboot it). Has anyone been able to optimize Linux to the point where it boots as fast if not faster then Windows XP?

I really need to give Gentoo a try. I have a need for speed, and everyone is always saying that Gentoo is really fast.