OT: [Gllug] Debian or Slack

[ben f]

 --- Bruce Richardson <itsbruce at uklinux.net> wrote: >
> > 
> > Do debianites tend to use pre-existing packages or
> > roll-their-own, as I generally find myself doing
> for
> > slack.
> 
> Bit of both, really.  Frankly, though, if the
> default packages in your
> distribution of choice are built so badly that you
> *have* to roll your
> own all the time, then you're using the wrong
> distribution.  I have to
> co-ordinate networks across 15 sites in England,
> Wales and Africa and I
> don't have time to be recompiling groff or getty or
> the like.

I presently only use slackware on a couple of boxes
at work and at home. I guess you could say that's 2
sites ;) but not on different continents!

> If a distribution is well designed then not only is
> rolling your own
> applications something that is only needed in
> particular circumstances
> but you have to be careful that you don't break a
> carefully integrated
> system.  Where I do compile apps to my own specs, I
> always try to find a
> Debian source package first.  Those apps that I do
> roll from scratch, I
> manage with Stow.

Naturally I'll look for a package first from a slack
site. No point creating a rod for your back. However,
like the contrib rpms, I do not trust slack packages
created by who known whom out in the wild.

> Some people spend a lot of time compiling apps from
> scratch for the
> personal sense of satisfaction it gives them.  Good
> luck to them but
> they have more time than I do.  Others do it because
> it makes them feel
> 'leet, even though they only use the autoconf
> scripts and don't know
> makefile from a fairy cake recipe.  Such types
> usually indulge in a lot
> of tiresome penis-waggling about how this makes them
> hard-core hackers.
> If they do it in front of me, I usually aim to leave
> them walking funny.

I'd like to get away from this part of the thread. Yes
slack users and others can sometimes be a bit "command
line or die", but I'm not one. I do appreciate that
you didn't aim this at me, though. :)

> > I was almost down the road to becoming a slack
> bigot
> > but I've had redhat imposed on me at work and I
> have
> > to say it's not so bad. rpms are actually quite 
> > powerful - both as a way to mess up a system and
> be
> > it's master depending on how much of a mess of the
> > spec file you make ;)
> 
> Right.  The point that is missed by the
> penis-wagglers is that to make
> effective use of a package management system you
> need a thorough
> knowledge of how to hand-roll packages *and* the
> packaging system.
> 
> That said, I do think that some people's attitudes
> to hand-rolling
> versus packages is down to the abysmal build quality
> of many of the
> contrib (and some of the core) packages that have
> traditionally been
> available for Red Hat.  I'd expect Fedora to change
> that.

I _really_ hope so!

Cheers,

Ben


	
	
		
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