Linux a la Carte [LWN.net]

Linux a la Carte

Posted Mar 11, 2004 10:50 UTC (Thu) by ordonnateur (subscriber, #6652)
Parent article: Linux a la Carte

and what does this Progeny do that I can't do with Gentoo?

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Linux a la Carte

Posted Mar 11, 2004 12:33 UTC (Thu) by rise (guest, #5045) [Link]

I think the point isn't that CL doesn't let you do anything that was impossible before, instead it makes special purpose setups easier. It's similar to the "Turing Complete" aspect of most programming languages - external interfaces aside you can perform any operation that one T.C. language can do in any other language, but some languages make certain tasks far easier. The Progeny folks seem to be trying to move the dividing line between "we could theoretically build our own distro for this" and "I'll throw together the setup we need this week" pretty far in the direction of greater ease.

Linux a la Carte

Posted Mar 11, 2004 14:46 UTC (Thu) by jeremiah (guest, #1221) [Link]

This sounds great actually. I hate being in the business of trying to pair down redhat/fedora for our clients, as well as our servers. I'd love a 'java/cipe/tn5250/cron' machine out of the box. I know all this can be done with kickstart etc, but I get tired of doing it, and would like to have someone else save me that time. It's cheaper for me to be writing code and using an out of box solution, than having to figure out the latest dependencies for my own mini-special purpose distro.

I think that's probaly what will happen too. Fedora will add more options to there initial setup list. Not just Server, Workstation, Laptop, but also Router, VPN client, Mailserver, Webserver etc. It would just simplify things a little. Of course you'll still have to customeize them to get hings just right, thus defeating the entire purpose, but just maybe it'll make it a little eaiser.

I need my morning Jolt don't I?

Linux a la Gentoo?

Posted Mar 12, 2004 12:07 UTC (Fri) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]

Actually, as I'm currently reading up on Gentoo myself in preparation for
installing it alongside Mandrake and possibly eventually switching*, the
same question occurred to me here.

The difference, it would seem, is between a source based distribution that
also happenss to have binary packages available (Gentoo), and a binary
package distribution that also happens to have source available
(traditional distributions such as Mandrake, Red Hat/Fedora, Debian,
etc.).

Also, writing as one who hasn't actually done the Gentoo install as yet
and is still researching, I'm not yet sure Gentoo has a good component
oriented layout where all the customization steps (use keywords and the
various cflags) can be easily and fully chosen in advance, without having
to (re-) emerge -e world after getting everything set up just so. (I've
not yet covered that in the install portion of the handbook, yet, or
actually done the install.) The practical implication here is that I'm
still undecided as to whether I'll be doing a stage-1 install, hoping to
get everything tweaked to my satisfaction the first time around, or
whether I'll be better off with a stage-3 plus potential package CD
installation, then when everything is tweaked to my satisfaction for a
perfect rebuild, only THEN doing going back and doing a full recompilation
install, using emerge -e world.

Duncan

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* The original motivation for the possible switch was lack of current KDE
in Mandrake for AMD64, even in cooker, DESPITE Mandrake's supposedly
bleeding edge distribution reputation.. maybe on i586 but certainly not on
AMD64.. KDE just released 3.2.1, while Mdk for AMD64 is stuck on 3.1.4.