Wow flame bait ;) Since you asked for it, random comments/flames inline. -- Doug Geiger runexe@counter.clue4all.net http://counter.clue4all.net/~runexe/ If you're crossing the nation in a covered wagon, it's better to have four strong oxen than 100 chickens. Chickens are OK but we can't make them work together yet. -- Ross Bott, Pyramid U.S., on multiprocessors at AUUGM '89.
-----Original Message----- From: discuss-admin@wpila.org [mailto:discuss-admin@wpila.org]On Behalf Of Chuck Haines Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 2:39 PM To: discuss@wpila.org; wlug@mail.wlug.org Subject: [WPILA-Discuss] Gentoo Linux Distro
I figured since I hadn't seen this on the list I'd post it. I recently (and by recent I mean 2 - 3 months) re-installed Linux on my computer. I was a very satisfied Slack8 user but I wanted something more. For one, I wanted a package manager. So I thought I might dabble into Debian (seeing how that is supposedly the premiere distro). But one problem existed, Debian still used binaries. I wanted everything compiled from source so it was optimized for my system (yes, I am a geek and very proud of it).
apt-get source <package> And I believe you can do similar w/SRPMS. Though I'll give that if I was going to go through all the trouble of compiling everything from source, personally I'd just grab .tar.gz of it all. Hell why bother with a distro?
So I went searching for my distro. I searched and searched and just when I thought I wasn't going to find it, I found a distro called Sorcerer linux. WOW, I thought to myself, this does what I wanted. So I downloaded and installed it. I still hate it to this day. So then I continued my search and stubbled upon Gentoo linux on Slashdot. After being disappointed with Sorcerer, I wasn't expecting much, but little to my knowledge this distro would turn out the be the best distro I've ever tried (and I've tried close to 100 distro's of both unix and linux flavor).
Damn, 100? How much free time do you have?
So I begin my install of Gentoo. Gentoo is still in late beta stages (the 1.0 release is scheduled for mid to late this month). The install was a little rocky, but unlike most linux distro's you can find the authors on their irc channel on opennetworks and they are a tremendous help. I have yet to have a problem that someone in that channel wasn't able to fix.
irc.debian.org - I use it and enjoy it ;).
Not to mention, some of the authors went here to WPI as they commented when they saw I was from WPI. This distro has it all. It has an amazing package management system which is simple to use and VERY powerful. Plus is compiles everything from source which means that your system is 100% optimized for your system (and yes it evern recompiles the gcc and stuff so that it is optimized), although you can now use bninaries optimized for i586. Not to mention you compile the kernel at install time so there is no more "stock" kernel business. You can get to business right away. Also, gentoo will only install what you want, making this as small or large of a system as you wish. IMHO, this is the best distro on the "market" today. I have even begun some devlopment for it.
Have you tried LinuxFromScratch? I remember talking to you about it...
Just thought I'd share some thoughts on the newest distro of my liking. If anyone is interested, their website is, http://www.gentoo.org. They can also be found on irc at us.openprojects.net, channel #gentoo. I'm in the channel a lot so look for termleech or termr00t.
'Course the REAL geeks just rewrite their own POSIX-like kernel from scratch and start their own distro based on it ;P.
Thoughts, comments, and flames are welcome.
---------------------- | Chuck Haines | | GDC Webmaster | | chaines@wpi.edu | | AOL IM: CyberGrex | ----------------------
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