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One of the big problems with not compiling your own kernel is that most kernels will run basic i686 or i586 code on your machine.
In RedHat 7.1 my Athlon Thunderbird 1.2GHz is detected as only an i586 processor. I can recompile the kernel for the athlon directly, which will incredibly optimize it, so that my linux box isn't running as if it were simply a Pentium 1.2GHz (a slight exaggeration, I know).
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Originally posted here by chsh
One of the big problems with not compiling your own kernel is that most kernels will run basic i686 or i586 code on your machine.
In RedHat 7.1 my Athlon Thunderbird 1.2GHz is detected as only an i586 processor. I can recompile the kernel for the athlon directly, which will incredibly optimize it, so that my linux box isn't running as if it were simply a Pentium 1.2GHz (a slight exaggeration, I know).
Excellent point. The same applies to all software on Linux. Why download binaries that use the i586 instruction set when you have a P4 or a AMD processor? This is why I try to compile all of my software from source, so that it will be optimized for my P4 using the i686 Inst. set. But if you insist on using binaries, find one that matches your setup.
--Sudo