[Klug-general] KLUG OS

[AllenJB]

Stuart Brand wrote:
> Hi Peter
> 
> Time is not a factor, nor sanity as I can have a working Distro normally within a day.
> 
> If this was a wine or beer appreciation group then would it not be encouraged for members to "Home Brew"? after all, how can you really know how things work without knowing how they are made.

I'd love to know what your definition of building a working distro from 
scratch here is, since that is as far as I can tell, what you're suggesting.

If you insist on using this, in my opinion, unsuitable analogy, I would 
say that what you're suggesting is: I want to grow all my own 
ingredients from scratch and make my own brewing equipment and 
packaging... because I want to put more precise drinking instructions on 
the label.

> 
> Yes, there are many Distros out there, some good, some bad, and they all have bugs. The suggestion is not to help the other Distros be better but to give a very basic base line on which to build knowledge. The reason is because not all Distros are alike so causes confusion when asking for help.

So your suggestion is to create a new distro (which won't be exactly 
alike any other) with a very small number of users and little to no 
support or documentation? Despite the fact that what a linux user is 
going to want is a very large support base and lots of documentation?

I have to reiterate what others have said here. Reinventing the wheel is 
bad. If you want a well supported, easy to install and run distro for 
new users which has lots of documentation already available, I would 
suggest Ubuntu.

If you want to get dirty and mess about at a relatively low level, then 
I would suggest installing LFS at least once, then using Gentoo. Again - 
large support base with plenty of documentation.

I'm not up-to-date with LiveCD distro's, so not sure what to suggest, 
but I'm sure there's something like an Ubuntu based livecd with plenty 
of documentation available that would be suitable for giving people a 
taste of Linux without actually installing it.

Linux distros really do have all the general bases covered. Unless you 
really do have some really niche purpose and you really can't find an 
existing distro to use, any effort you put into creating your own distro 
is going to go to waste. You'll be far better off using and getting 
involved with the development for an existing distro (or specific 
application).

Even "forking" an existing distro and making modifications is going to 
be a large amount of work. In addition many people won't recognise it as 
being the distro you based yours on even if your changes are relatively 
minor. This will end in a support nightmare for users and developers alike.

AllenJB

> 
> Anyway, if someone wants to show an interest in this then let me know and I will put something together and also document how I did it so we can all have a go.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Stuart