On Sat, 23 Sep 2006 19:36:31 +0000, Duncan wrote: [...] > FWIW... I'm a Gentooer myself, so I obviously think it's the best solution > for me. =8^) However, I recognize that compiling from source isn't > everybody's idea of fun, or what they want to spend their time on, and > indeed, that for users with a single core/cpu of less than say 2 GHz, it'd > be a rather huge burden, both for the time compiling and the fact that a > single core simply can't multitask as efficiently as two or more, so for > such a user there WILL be a major tradeoff in terms of time spent keeping > the system updated. > > The problem is, and I didn't really understand the full implications of > this until I had spent some time on Gentoo and could actually /see/ them, > once one decides to go with a primarily binary (that is, upstream > compiled) solution, HUGE compromises must be made in terms of dependency > flexibility vs. supported options. Where compile time choices must be > made in what one supports and therefore what one depends on, no matter > WHICH way one goes, there are serious tradeoffs. Either one supports all > sorts of stuff but ends up bringing in all sorts of bloat for those that > don't use it all -- and few actually use it /all/, the problem is the part > that gets used depends on the deployment, or one seriously limits support > for optional features by choosing not to depend on them and thereby not to > have that bloat. There's no single right answer, nor /can/ there be. [...]
There's <http://www.sabayonlinux.org/> and <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VidaLinux> which take almost the reverse of what I proposed, but with a similar outcome (just came across these today, perusing c.o.l.a.). They marry the fedora installer, anaconda, with gentoo package management! I found it ridiculous that gentoo took, IIRC, 24+hrs to install. For small things, like telnet, sure, compiling from source is fine. For others, as you specify, it's probably not a good thing for the vast majority. OTOH, large packages, like office, are compiled infrequently. Gentoo can do e-builds with binaries, such as the sun JRE. At least one of the above distros, there's a third, too, mentions binary e-builds for gnome and/or office :) Gentoo itself does offer various binary workarounds to installing, from tarballs if memory serves, or from cd-rom, but I found it intimidating, with the tarballs, and my cd might've been corrupt. -Thufir _______________________________________________ Pan-users mailing list Pan-users@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pan-users
