Source based?

Posted Sep 14, 2009 18:21 UTC (Mon) by leromarinvit (subscriber, #56850)
Parent article: FSF updates its "fully free" distribution list

For optimal performance with minimal bandwidth requirements, it uses a packaging system called 'ports' that downloads programs as source and builds them automatically.

Huh? Aren't source packages normally larger than binary ones?

-rw-r--r-- 1 foo bar 61494822 10. Sep 04:45 linux-2.6.31.tar.bz2
-rw-r--r-- 1 foo bar  5249892 12. Sep 12:42 linux-doc-2.6.31_2.6.31-10.00.Custom_all.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 foo bar  6168812 12. Sep 12:35 linux-headers-2.6.31_2.6.31-10.00.Custom_i386.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 foo bar 15344920 12. Sep 12:36 linux-image-2.6.31_2.6.31-10.00.Custom_i386.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 foo bar     2132 12. Sep 12:42 linux-manual-2.6.31_2.6.31-10.00.Custom_all.deb

The kernel is probably a bad example, as it contains code for lots of architectures and devices, only a subset of which ends up in the binary. But compare this

OOo_3.1.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz	00:20 27-08-09	161603641

to this

OOo_3.1.1_src_binfilter.tar.bz2			00:21 27-08-09	6500967
OOo_3.1.1_src_core.tar.bz2			00:22 27-08-09	185952495
OOo_3.1.1_src_extensions.tar.bz2		00:22 27-08-09	14820645
OOo_3.1.1_src_system.tar.bz2			00:23 27-08-09	53316228

So, how does being source based help bandwidth requirements?

Source based?

Posted Sep 14, 2009 21:55 UTC (Mon) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link]

I guess the diffs are shorter. I don't know for sure if ports uses diffs, as "ports" is a poor name to search for, there is no obvious way to download the ports code or documentation on the Kongoni site, and I won't download the Kongoni ISO image from Africa just to be sure.

Source based?

Posted Sep 14, 2009 22:01 UTC (Mon) by elanthis (guest, #6227) [Link]

Why do you assume these people have any idea what they're talking about? They just
pointlessly redeveloped a ports based Linux with the sole bullet point addition of "RMS
approves". Either they're technically disinclined they're more interested in politics than facts.
Either way, it's in their interest to just make wild technical claims without bothering to back
them up with facts.