[Lancaster] Re: Install Fest

[Matt S Trout]

On Sat, Sep 03, 2005 at 12:17:37PM +0100, Kristof Van Laerhoven wrote:
> Ken Hough wrote:
> 
> >Kristof Van Laerhoven wrote:
> >
> >>- if everyone brings the installation discs of distros they have 
> >>experience with (anyone covering Gentoo?) we should be fine,
> >
> >Is Gentoo really appropriate for this event? We won't have time to 
> >compile a complete installation, so what would it offer as binaries?
> 
> I know, I know, I wasn't serious of course.. having said that, it 
> *would* be interesting to see someone installing it - for us foreigners 
> it might be like watching a game of cricket unfold  ;)

Actually, I've done several desktops using a Gentoo Stage 3 install - so
your entire base system comes precompiled and you just use emerge to install
additional software. It functions quite similarly to $BSD + ports/pkgsrc at
that point, and is rather nice - and was the inspiration behind our in-house
Slack + pkgsrc distro (codename PkgSlack). PkgSlack is rather slimmer, though
- <200Mb for a base install.

One that *is* well worth considering is VectorLinux, a desktop-oriented
Slack-derived distro whose latest release has gorgeous KDE and Gnome desktops
and a mostly-working preview of the new e17 Enlightenment release.

-- 
     Matt S Trout       Specialists in perl consulting, web development, and
  Technical Director    UNIX/Linux systems architecture and automation. Mail
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