IMO, Linux Distributors should seriously think about Role Based Operations for their distributions.
Every linux user is going to be using his copy of the distribution in a different way. But from the distributor’s point of view, it should boil down to:
Desktop Users
Laptop Users
Server Users
Currently, some of the distributions apply this thought only to packages. For example, Ubuntu rolls out a desktop flavor and a server (generic) flavor of its kernel package. I think the distributions need to think broad and realize that NOT One Size Fits All.
Currently, In Debian, the debian installer can detect what kind of hardware you are installing it onto and come up with a base installation proposal. d-i should extend this to configuration modes. For example, if the installation is being done on a laptop, as many as possible services should be configured to start from inetd and not as an ever running daemon.
Here’s an example. I love Deiban.
They package the entire set of dictionaries. I love to have a handy copy of all the dictionaries in just a couple of megs. And I don’t have to worry about the dictionaries being outdated. As soon as a new udpate is out, Debian gets it.
Here’s where I see the problem. The dictionary service is something I use in a very limited fashion. Maybe once a day? But still, that once a day usage is important to me.
But this is what my system reports with dictd running:
rrs@champaran:~$ cat /tmp/dictd.memstat | grep dict
1392k: PID 9665 (/usr/share/dictd/bouvier.dict.dz)
176k: /usr/sbin/dictd 9665
2340k: /usr/share/dictd/bouvier.dict.dz 9665
132k: /usr/share/dictd/bouvier.index 9665
196k: /usr/share/dictd/vera.dict.dz 9665
128k: /usr/share/dictd/vera.index 9665
292k: /usr/share/dictd/foldoc.index 9665
2148k: /usr/share/dictd/foldoc.dict.dz 9665
1064k: /usr/share/dictd/freedict-eng-hin.dict.dz 9665
420k: /usr/share/dictd/freedict-eng-hin.index 9665
1064k: /usr/share/dictd/freedict-hin-eng.dict.dz 9665
1228k: /usr/share/dictd/freedict-hin-eng.index 9665
13212k: /usr/share/dictd/gcide.dict.dz 9665
3860k: /usr/share/dictd/gcide.index 9665
560k: /usr/share/dictd/jargon.dict.dz 9665
44k: /usr/share/dictd/jargon.index 9665
10508k: /usr/share/dictd/moby-thesaurus.dict.dz 9665
532k: /usr/share/dictd/moby-thesaurus.index 9665
9248k: /usr/share/dictd/wn.dict.dz 9665
3004k: /usr/share/dictd/wn.index 9665
-——-
164444k
Wow!!! That’s a good chunk of memory that my dictionary service is using even while I use this service just once a day.
And here’s what the output is when I disable my dictd and configure it to run from inetd.
rrs@champaran:~$ cat /tmp/inetd.memstat
-——-
109920k
So that brings us to a saving of (164444KiB - 109920KiB) 54524KiB, roughly around 50 MiB of RAM. Sweet.
Point to note is that this is just one service. There can be many more like this. Potential candidate that I can think of right now, from the ones that are installed on my box, are CUPS, Mailserver et cetera.
IMO, it is not just Code Optimization that helps. Some thoughts like these can also help us in many ways.
A lot of people talk about power savings, just think, how much battery power can be conserved with these services were running through inet than always running.