Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
Gentoo 4 ever.
Gentoo, (still compiling) 4 ever.
Gentoo, for those unaware, is a unique Linux distro. Rather than a team of developers compiling source code into installable "packages" for you, YOU compile the source code on your own machine for *every* *application*, kernel included. To say this is a considerable undertaking is an understatement. It is time-consuming and requires some deep study into the differing ways one can compile source code: enabling and disabling features and optimizing the compilation for certain tasks, etc.
Arch Linux offers the user the ability to casually compile their own applications as well; but a lot of that, for most users, is done using pre-formatted scripts (provided either by Arch developers or by a member of the user community) that automagically download and compile the application(s)' source code and their dependencies. Hardly as "involved" a process as you doing it all yourself.
Gentoo users can usually walk into a bar full of nerds and not have to buy themselves a beer. Colt45ws, if you are a Gentoo user,
Well, Gentoo's 'emerge' command takes care of most everything these days.
The only thing I have do any "raw" compiling on is the kernel.
Otherwise, emerge does all the dependencies and features based off the USE flags I have selected in the make.conf.
The most technical part is installing it. Manually formatting and partitioning the drive, copying over the base files getting it all configured and compiled.
I remember when they allowed you to do a stage 1 install. Bootstrapping the OS from the lowest-level. They removed that option because of problems, but when I did my first stage 1 Gentoo install I had just killed two Slackware Linux installs in a row. Due to mistakes I had made trying to do simple stuff. Doing it that way taught me a lot.
The initial compile of the machine is the longest part. I think my router took about 1/2 day to compile all the programs, but its terminal interface only.
If you want to compile something like KDE, ooooh, lawd. Itll be a about a day for that monster to finish. Another big one is OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Those will go all night. FF and Thunderbird take awhile too, but are not nearly as bad.
They have binary packages of all the large ones for that reason too; if you have a weak machine or just don't want to wait.
Whenever Im doing heavy compiling I fire up my server and the Linux VM on my desktop.
Can use a program called DistCC to do distributed compilation across multiple machines. Helps a lot when your putting it on say, an older C2D laptop. Then I would have the mobile C2D, with two more C2D-class Xeons in the server, and a i7-980X in my desktop assiting.
Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
Gentoo 4 ever.
Gentoo, (still compiling) 4 ever.
Gentoo, for those unaware, is a unique Linux distro. Rather than a team of developers compiling source code into installable "packages" for you, YOU compile the source code on your own machine for *every* *application*, kernel included. To say this is a considerable undertaking is an understatement. It is time-consuming and requires some deep study into the differing ways one can compile source code: enabling and disabling features and optimizing the compilation for certain tasks, etc.
Arch Linux offers the user the ability to casually compile their own applications as well; but a lot of that, for most users, is done using pre-formatted scripts (provided either by Arch developers or by a member of the user community) that automagically download and compile the application(s)' source code and their dependencies. Hardly as "involved" a process as you doing it all yourself.
Gentoo users can usually walk into a bar full of nerds and not have to buy themselves a beer. Colt45ws, if you are a Gentoo user,
Well, Gentoo's 'emerge' command takes care of most everything these days.
The only thing I have do any "raw" compiling on is the kernel.
Otherwise, emerge does all the dependencies and features based off the USE flags I have selected in the make.conf.
The most technical part is installing it. Manually formatting and partitioning the drive, copying over the base files getting it all configured and compiled.
I remember when they allowed you to do a stage 1 install. Bootstrapping the OS from the lowest-level. They removed that option because of problems, but when I did my first stage 1 Gentoo install I had just killed two Slackware Linux installs in a row. Due to mistakes I had made trying to do simple stuff. Doing it that way taught me a lot.
The initial compile of the machine is the longest part. I think my router took about 1/2 day to compile all the programs, but its terminal interface only.
If you want to compile something like KDE, ooooh, lawd. Itll be a about a day for that monster to finish. Another big one is OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Those will go all night. FF and Thunderbird take awhile too, but are not nearly as bad.
They have binary packages of all the large ones for that reason too; if you have a weak machine or just don't want to wait.
Whenever Im doing heavy compiling I fire up my server and the Linux VM on my desktop.
Can use a program called DistCC to do distributed compilation across multiple machines. Helps a lot when your putting it on say, an older C2D laptop. Then I would have the mobile C2D, with two more C2D-class Xeons in the server, and a i7-980X in my desktop assiting.
