Home Messages Index
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index

Re: [News] Gentoo Turns 10

On 2009-07-01, the following emerged from the brain of Logan Rathbone:
> On Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:51:25 +0000, TomB wrote:
>
>> On 2009-07-01, the following emerged from the brain of Logan Rathbone:
>>> The problem is with the redundancy of compiling everything.  It's a
>>> waste of time.
>> 
>> Installing from source is not redundant. You can optimize for
>> older/specific hardware. You can configure out
>> options/features/dependancies you don't like. You can customize the
>> application to better suit your needs...
>> 
>> There are many reasons to install from source.
>
> Sorry, that was a poor choice of words on my part.

No, I misread your statement. You did state "compiling everything".

> It's not *redundant* to compile from source in general - I compile some 
> software all the time.  It's just that the benefits of compiling 
> *everything* are outweighed by the drawbacks.  It's all about 
> proportionality.  But like I said, if people *enjoy* compiling every 
> single thing on their system and *don't mind* doing a heck of a lot of 
> waiting, they can go right ahead.  Freedom of choice is one of the best 
> aspects of Linux.

I agree. On FreeBSD I use ports and packages side by side. I like the
packages for their ease of installation, but I'm glad to have the
ports collection at hand for special cases.

I'm writing this message on a FreeBSD machine running CURRENT. I
rebuilt it just a few weeks ago in under 4 hours for the base system
and kernel, and a little over 2 hours for the installed ports. It's
running headless though, so I have no X or WM on it. I keep it around
just to see what's new in FreeBSD and use it a lot for mundane tasks
duch as mail, news, torrents, ftp ... If I can report a bug along the
way I'm glad, because that means the releases will be better. So
that's my reason to compile this machine from scratch once in a while.

> I just think it's silly, that's all.

You're entitled to have your own opinion.

-- 
Q:	How many Romulans does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A:	Twelve.  One to screw the light-bulb in, and eleven
	to self-destruct the ship out of disgrace.

	[Warning: do not tell this joke to Romulans or else be ready for
	a fight.  They consider it to be a disgrace, though it's
	pretty good for a LBJ.  Ed.]

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index