> I am building a new Linux-SMP box:
>
> Supermicro P6DBU board
> Supermicro 750 case
> Twin PIII 450's
> 128MB PC100 Crucial tech. Registered SDram
> Assorted SCSI/Ultra IDE peripherals
>
> (No expense spared here - the spouse is bitter!)
>
buy me one <lol> .. no seriously cool, before I buy, I'd
actually make sure the hard ware hasn't caused anyone any
problems, and that it is all supported (unless you want to write
a driver)
> My only question is - I have used slackware forever (currently
> Kernel
> 2.0.30). Is any linux better for the SMP box, Slackware or
> Redhat? Any
> opinions?
>
I used Slackware for years too, my decision to go with
Redhat was not based on anything to do with SMP thou. You can
download and install any 2.2 kernel you like with Redhat 6.0, I
have 2.2.10. You can also, I imagine use a 2.2 kernel with
Slackware 4.0. SUSE 6.1 can be used to, as well as Caldera
latest too, and Caldera has a really cool "looking" install
utility from what I have seen.
The main differences between Slackware and Redhat is a BSD
type file system vs a System V type file system, and pkgtool vs
RPM. YES, there are other differeences too, but those are the
major ones thou. RPM (and threads RH5.0 [glibc2.0] vs Slackware
3.4[libc5]) won for me, and I am now working on a utility to aid
in creating spec files too (self plug <g>).
All that aside:
I am not sure Slackware is glibc2.1. If it is great use it!
Threads are more important than the distribution you use. WHY?
Plain and simple if you really want to get more performance out
of your SMP box then you'll want threads where threads are
usefull. In a UP box this is not as important as there is only
one CPU which cannot take advantage of threads that well, but
SMP boxes can take advantage of threads and forks, as there is
now a processor to run it on. Glibc2.1 has threads.
If Slackware 4.0 is not glibc2.1 and you want to upgrade
your system to use threads, remeber that you'll have to compile
your X server to be threads safe -DREENTRANT (?something like
that?) along with compiling many other programs, else you could
have other problems.
Something also to consider is that Patrick V (make of
Slackware) is supposed to be releaseing a glibc2.1 version of
Slakware sometime this fall, so it may be worth going with
Slackware 4.0 and then upgrading to Glibc2.1 version of
Slackware when it comes out. (what I'd do if I was still using
Slackware).
Whatever decision you make is really up to what distro you prefer.
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