[Pan-users] Re: FQDN and hostname

[Thufir]

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