[ale] Linux Distributions

[Jeff Hubbs]

For the past couple of years, I guess, I've worked the most with Gentoo.
I have nothing bad to say about any other distribution, but the thing
that I like the most about Gentoo is the "straightness" with which you
get your packages.  Gentoo's Portage system (based conceptually on BSD's
ports) and the continuous maintenance of the total package set by the
Gentoo team is a strong draw (before any of you go "Yeah, well,
SuHatDrakeOra has X, Y, and Z," see the above statement, knock yourself
out, and God speed to you).  

After having worked with Gentoo now for several *years*, it's only just
now sinking into me what the "big idea" is, and I dare say that if you
have *not* also worked with it for years (although, I'll acknowledge
that a LOT of within-distro legerdemain under your belt substitutes well
for time here, i.e., you know how to surgically cut out and replace or
rework large hunks of your distro's installation for your own ends), you
probably aren't going to "get it" either; you'll probably hit this speed
bump about compiling everything you can lay your hands on because the
installation handbook puts so much emphasis on compiling.  

It seems that this "big idea" is to use a Gentoo installation as the
basis for what amounts to your own distro.  When you've done it once,
you can replicate your work to other machines (it helps to know up-front
that that's what you intend to do).  I just recently finished setting up
a P/200 machine with IceWM for a nearby church's afterschool program and
before I shipped it off, I tarballed the tree off so that I can use that
to populate any other low-end box and then, if I so choose, I can make
everything on it current with one command (I hear you already,
SuHatDrakeOra users).  All I know is, I'm effective with Gentoo.

Jeff

On Mon, 2005-05-16 at 12:15 -0400, mcangeli at bellsouth.net wrote:
> Check out Distrowatch http://distrowatch.com
> 
> They list almost all of the distributions, as well as when any of the sites do a review....
> 
> Oh, and I prefer slackware....
> 
> Mark
> http://linuxtracker.org
> > 
> > From: Mark Schill <meson3902 at gmail.com>
> > Date: 2005/05/16 Mon AM 09:41:41 EDT
> > To: ale at ale.org
> > Subject: [ale] Linux Distributions
> > 
> >  Greetings,
> >  I have played around with Linux for many years, but I have always stuck 
> > with the big boys. IE Red Hat and SUSE. I know there are more distributions 
> > out there and wanted to get input on what the members of the linux community 
> > use and why.
> > 
> > Thanks for you input,
> > Mark
> > 
> > 
> 
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