On Fri, Mar 28, 2003 at 01:25:33AM -0500, reg hughson wrote: > The idea of Gentoo or 'Linux From Scratch' intrigue me but am not really > sure of the difference between the two other than Gentoo having a system > in place to keep your system current. >
Linux from Scratch really is just that, Linux from scratch. It provides no package management, no dependency tracking, and none of the initscript handling that Gentoo does so much better than many of the mainstream distros do. Portage is a BIG thing, much bigger than you make it out to be. I've been a Linux user since around 1995, and I can tell you that it's one of the things I wished Slackware had when I was using it. I tried using Redhat 5.0 in 1997 and found it only marginally better, and getting worse and worse with age, and I wound up constantly looking for ways to get around the screwed up Red Hat packaging system. And now, I have Gentoo, and am content. At least now I have a package management system that actually manages dependencies in a sane way, and while it could use some improvement, its a fair sight better than anything else that I've ever seen so far. It's not *just* a system for keeping your system current; it manages the large quantity of software you usually have installed in a typical Linux box. Frankly, I think LFS is a good thing to try if you have spare time and want to understand how Linux works in great detail: there's nothing that can teach you that so well as actually building it up from scratch. This is something everyone serious about Linux should do at least once in their lives, I believe. However, I imagine it would be a nightmare to administer such a system in actual deployment as a server. It would be an absolute bitch to maintain, keep up to date with security patches, and upgrade. That's where Gentoo and Portage come in. -- Rafael R. Sevilla <dido at imperium dot ph> +63(2)8123151 Software Developer, Imperium Technology Inc. +63(917)4458925 "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed." -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
