Should I try LinuxFromScratch or Gentoo??

[billdotson]

I have both the ISOs burned onto CDs and I want to know which one to try out first. I hear Gentoo and LinuxFromScratch are those masochistic OSes that take a long time to get working but in the end they are incredibly fast and tailored to what you need the OS for so there is no extra baggage. Although I am not sure if i know enough about compiling and BASH to get either of them working. I am using Ubuntu currently and it seems to be really slow on my Core 2 Duo system. It often takes 3-5 seconds to open the drop-down applications menu, mono crashes all the time and gnomebaker hates my PC.

[igknighted]

Both are good choices. Personally I love gentoo, but I haven't tried LFS. I might say go with LFS first, however, as Gentoo 2007 is coming out soon so try LFS now and Gentoo when 2007 comes out.

[po0f]

billdotson,

I'd personally suggest using Gentoo because it has a package manager. I don't know if LFS has one or not though. Both are source based distros, which I'm sure you already know. I sure hope you're prepared for this ordeal.

[billdotson]

maybe I should do LFS first to learn how to do it all (as it has a walkthrough) and then when Gentoo 2007 comes out I should know enough about Linux from LFS to have fun setting up Gentoo instead of ripping my hair out in frustration.

[igknighted]

Originally Posted by billdotson maybe I should do LFS first to learn how to do it all (as it has a walkthrough) and then when Gentoo 2007 comes out I should know enough about Linux from LFS to have fun setting up Gentoo instead of ripping my hair out in frustration.

I would say the opposite is true. I know I suggested LFS first due to Gentoo 2007 coming out soon, but if you want to learn as you go Gentoo is the way to go. Gentoo is the best documented distro in linux. The manual can walk you through every step of the install explaining what is going on. I don't know what the LFS documentation is like, but I doubt it can compare to Gentoo.

[Kateikyoushi]

I tried LFS after years of using freeBSD and maybe 3-4 years of gentoo, was fun way to kill a weekend but I hardly benefit from it all, probably because of previous gentoo installs, I would choose gentoo anytime.

[billdotson]

I guess I will go with Gentoo 2007 when it is released.. sounds like I will learn a large amount of stuff about Linux and will end up with a blazing fast and fully customized Linux OS when I am done.

[igknighted]

Originally Posted by billdotson I guess I will go with Gentoo 2007 when it is released.. sounds like I will learn a large amount of stuff about Linux and will end up with a blazing fast and fully customized Linux OS when I am done.

Or almost as likely end up with a HD partition full of files that won't boot for crap . I jest, although my first Gentoo install turned out like that sadly. If I were you (and you could spare it) I would try this on your fastest computer, as it will noticeably cut down compile times. My old P4 chip (a 3ghz one) took almost 4 hrs to complete a kernel compile, but my 1.9ghz dual core AMD chip did it in between 1/2hr and 1 hr (I dunno exactly, I expected it to be longer so I walked away).

[billdotson]

I only have one machine but I think it could handle a compile pretty quickly.

I'll be putting the Gentoo on my USB 2.0 external HDD along w/ Ubuntu. I have got roughly 240GB of unused space as of now.

[daschl]

i'm sorry, but i cannot agree with some of you guys..


Linux From Scratch is good when you want to learn how to build your own distro and so on, but i would not recommend it for anything that we call a "productive environment" ..

gentoo is a great distribution and i use it a lot in server environments. i also used it for my desktop os but i prefer ubuntu here. why? because i dont want to spend so much time compiling stuff.. and my athlon 64 is so powerful that i cannot find any speed differences when modifying use flags (and - of course - waiting for compilation erros )