Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Tue, 25 Jun 1996 10:03:50 GMT | From | Alex Krimkevich <> | Subject | real kernel bloat |
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Steve VanDevender writes: > I recently got a DEC AlphaStation at my new job. It's running Digital > UNIX, since that's what the other machines I am charged with maintaining > run. > > As far as I can tell Digital UNIX (formerly Digital OSF/1) is a fat > bloated pig. At boot the kernel allocates over 8 megabytes of memory to > itself on a 32 meg machine. Once I load up X and my assortment of > desktop doodads the machine runs acceptably, as long as only one thing > is running. If, however, I try to compile something and then do > something else the machine swaps like mad, and simple window system > operations like raising or moving windows have 5-10 second delays > between pressing the buttons and seeing something happen. > > I compare this with my home Linux system, with 486-DX2/66 instead of a > 233 MHz Alpha, but also with 32M of memory. Even though I've got enough > going to have pushed this machine a little ways into swap, it never > feels as loaded as the Digital UNIX box. And the kernel takes no more > than 1.5M of memory once loaded. Despite the AlphaStation having a > processor that's at least 5 times faster and having PCI instead of ISA > for its peripherals, Digital UNIX manages to make it suck for > interactive performance. > > So those of you complaining about Linux's kernel bloat haven't seen > anything if you haven't seen Digital UNIX. Linux has a long, long way > to go before it could aspire to be that bloated. Your AlphaStation is badly misconfigured.
Alex Krimkevich
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