On Tuesday 20 August 2002 06:13, Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Aug 2002, Oleg Kobets wrote:
> > Guys, I just finished installing Gentoo 1.2 with X and KDE 3.0.2.
> >
> > 1. It rocks.
> > 2. It is very fast.
> > 3. It took me 2.5 days non stop compiling to install base, xfree 4.1.2,
> > kde 3.0.2 and koffice 1.2-rc2
>
> XFree 4.1.2? just like debian's stable, I see.
He's wrong. XFree is 4.2.0 and There's a masked one for cvs version (4.2.99)
as well.
> > 4. IT ROCKS :-)))))))
> >
> > If you want super fast linux that is simple to maintain (not install) as
> > debian, Gentoo is your choice.
>
> Allow to to suggest a different route to the same goal:
>
> install {Your-Favorite-Binary-Distribution}. If YFBD is worth its salt
> then it is based upon some sort of packages system. Make sure that you can
> get those source packages as well.
>
> (YFBD can be at least debian, mandrake or redhat).
>
> 1. install it. You'll have an installed and functioning system in much
> less than 2.5 days (even for a low-life 486).
>
> 2. start with the packages that are used (by the CPU) the most: kernel,
> glibc, (what else: XLib?): rebuild those packages with the best
> optimzation options. Compiling them should take much less than 2.5 days.
>
> 3. install those packages. You have just optimized 20% of the code that
> does 80% of the job. If you feel a need to optimize some more packages: go
> ahead.
The main feature/advantage of Gentoo (and other source based distros) is not
optimization. It is control.
1. Control of dependenices. With binary distros you're bound to the
dependencies as decided by the package maintainer. Let's for example take vim
in Debian. If you install vim lipgpm will be installed as well. I hate gpm
and never use it, don't want the stuff on my system.With Debian you have no
choice. With Gentoo you can set USE="-gpm" before buliding the package.
If you hate QT you can add -qt to your use flags and no optional qt
interfaces to packages will be compiled. Same goes from gtk, gnome or
whatever. For a list and usage of USE flags see:
http://gentoo.org/doc/use-howto.html
2. Control of packages. You can easily change and add your own ebuilds
(package descriptions), while the creation of rpms and debs is more involved
and cubersome. With moderate bash scripting knownledge you can create your
own packages for obscure apps or modify extisting ebuilds.
After getting pissed by the slow delivery rate of Debian (severla months ago)
of xfree and kde/koffice I switched to LinuxFromScratch and couldn't be
happier (so I have no problem compiling from source as you've guessed). The
only chink in the armor was the control and tracking of dependencies.
Gentoo was like a dream come true. It is the perfect cross between Debian and
LinuxFromScratch, you have the complete control of LFS and the dependencies
handling of apt (with portage).
You can also create binary packages (tbz2) for use on other machines without
the need to compile them again if you wish.
--
Meir Kriheli
MKsoft systems
http://www.mksoft.co.il
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