[wplug] Whats an Installfest?

[Richard Farina]

Diana A. Clarion wrote:

>Hi Zach,
>
>I looked at Debian several years ago, didn't do much with it.  I actually
>started with Slackware 3.5, about six years ago.  Surfing the Web got to be a
>little boring after a while, and as I've been around computers since about
>1970, I got interested in what made a Linux system tick.
>
>  
>
Last time I looked at Debian, I had a RedHat System with Kernel 2.4.18 
and debian was offering a choice between 2.2.x and 2.4.9 (or something 
ridiculous like that) Debian stable may be stable, but it's so old it 
isn't secure at all.  I know, I know, a new stable just came out, and I 
could just run testing, but Gentoo updates for security fixes as these 
bugs happen, and I can have it all up to date the day after a new 
security hole is announced. Love my gentoo, I'll never change.

>That's where building from source came in.  As I say, I learned quite a lot.
>As it is, I upgrade every few months, and look for new things to learn.  My
>biggest challenge:  Getting one of the desktop environments to build cleanly.
>I haven't managed to do it yet.  I suppose it's a good thing I don't feel the
>need to run one :)
>
>  
>
Diana, you would LOVE gentoo, it takes care of all the "will this 
compile cleanly" stuff and it still allows a ridiculous amount of 
control over how things are compiled and what gets added to the system.  
I would highly recommend you try it.  If you do try it and run into any 
issues, the gentoo install guide on gentoo.org is fantastic, and there 
are a few of us on this list that might be able to give some advice.

>DAC
>
>On Sun, Sep 11, 2005 at 04:44:43AM -0400, Zachary Uram wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi Diana,
>>
>>I like to build from source and am capable of doing so if the needs arises 
>>but I don't see need to recompile entire distribution whenever an upgrade is 
>>needed. I'll stick with Debian ;-) I have a /usr/local/src and will custom 
>>compile some things that I don't want in the package management system or 
>>which are just for localized usage. Have you tried Debian?
>>
>>Zach
>>    
>>
-Rick Farina