[Gllug] Recommended distro

[Jan Kokoska]

On Sun, 2004-12-12 at 16:04 +0000, Nelson Menezes wrote:

> I agree, but... <stands up> I'm a geek.

Then bite the bullet and face compiler errors, library linking issues
and *lots* of simply bad code (and don't ask on mailing list unless you
offer a patch, too). Tell me how productive your are, afterwards.

Harder is not necessarily better, Gentoo doesn't compile to look tough,
it wants to be more customizable. When you don't know the default inside
out (you don't), no need to mess with it. Build yourself a custom kernel
package for a start.. if you own a laptop, patch it for software suspend
and try and get that working.

> > There are certain specific
> > programs that 
> > genuinely do benefit from being compiled for the host 
> > kernel/libs/architecture.  You most likely don't use
> > them.
> 
> That's a very good point, but I sometimes like to
> enable/disable specific/usueless features to my heart's
> content before compiling. Ideally I'd like to have the
> choice of binary (when I just want it "to work") or source,
> but with the same mechanism to update and uninstall.

Good, fetch the source for Debian packages as described before, add your
custom ./configure flags (that's what Gentoo does) and re-compile. If
you need to compile, you need control, lots of it, much more than some
automatic 'emerge' gives you anyway (you might like to *edit* the
source, for instance, then you are on your own..)

Yes, I am running mixed Debian and Gentoo environment on our servers,
the latter is not my idea, but have to put up with it anyway. There are
some valid reasons behind it, won't go into detail here(*).

Jan

*: Want to re-build your whole system with stack protection? With
SELinux support? Tune the policies? Run vservers and Xen virtualization?
Actually manage to do this? Completely mad and have papers for it (PhD)?
No? Try to have a life outside of computers, at least sometimes? Then
you don't want Gentoo... 

/me listens to the inevitable humming of flamewar closing in

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