3 days ago I came accross gentoo linux.
Gentoo Linux is a linux redist that provides you with a livecd from which you are able to build a whole new linux installation practicly from scratch.
Yes, that means compiling everything yourself.
Normally compiling means reading through tons of documentation, trying to find dependencies, trying to get stuff working, making tweaks, and reading again through tons of documentation, trying to find dependencies, hoping version won’t collide, and again, and again.
Luckily gentoo provides a very neat tool called portage.
Portage allows you to simply install for instance gnome by just typing:
emerge gnome
Portage will look up which dependencies are required, download them, configure them, compile them, and clean up garbage. The only thing you got to do is hang back and relax.
Portage also automaticly implements your preferenced optimalization settings to create the best possible build for every single application you compile.
Gentoo seems to have resulted in a lot faster linux installation, although there is one little issue, it takes time.. A lot of time…
Compiling gnome (with all dependencies) took about 8 hours…
Maybe gentoo will be the first linux to kick windows from my desktop :-).
I used to use the FreeBSD port collection and compile my whole system from scratch as well. It was fun, but after a while (about 2 years) it got a bit irritating. I decided to go for pre-compiled packages instead, saves so much waiting, don’t think I’ll ever go back to compile-it-yourself.
Especially if you like to be on the bleeding edge, it’s a lot of time…
At least, got someone else loving linux. 🙂
But still, I don’t like portage. It’s too user-friendly. I want to compile something by myself. Have some controll about my packages, but it’s handy to compile great sources. Like Gnome or KDE.