[Tutor] [OT] Linux

Roger Merchberger zmerch at 30below.com
Thu Aug 12 05:17:16 CEST 2004


Rumor has it that David Rock may have mentioned these words:
>* Alan Colburn <aicolburn at yahoo.com> [2004-08-11 11:07]:
> > I could either reformat an old laptop
> > (166 MHz, ~90 Mb RAM, 2G HD) or find space on a newer
> > machine. Which path would you recommend?
>
>My personal favorite is gentoo linux, but I would not recommend it for a
>system as old as the laptop you are talking about.

Or for running qmail. Gentoo's "version" of it is so, so b0rked, that 
it's... it's...

Well, let's just say "Broken beyond repair."

>  Gentoo is a "from
>source" distribution, meaning it's designed to compile all the software
>on the machine from the sourcecode. It would run great once it's
>compiled, but compiling on something that old will make you old, too.
>:-)
>
>Still, it's been the most stable distro I've used in the last 10 years.
>As for space on a new system, most distros will install comfortably on 5
>Gig with an average installation.

If you want "From source" and you actually want to learn something about 
Linux at the same time:

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

to do it by hand. If you want it automated, look for the "Automated LFS" 
link on that page. Get the tarball, build nALFS, and *poof* -> InstaLinux. 
(Well, if instant for you is 2-6 days, depending on CPU/HD speed... ;-) )

You will learn more about linux in a week than you could out of a book in 
months. Trust me.

Oh, and with a *really lame* attempt to bring this back ontopic: Python 
*screams* when natively compiled -> under natively compiled libraries. 
Trust me. My Crusoe laptop loves me for it. ;-)

HTH,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
LFS Registered User #9350

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | A new truth in advertising slogan
sysadmin, Iceberg Computers | for MicroSoft: "We're not the oxy...
zmerch at 30below.com          |                         ...in oxymoron!"



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