Re: [tlug] Enterprise Linux Support

[Ulrich Plate <plate@example.com>]

Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> The competition is all latent, but both Debian- and RPM-based
> distributions can be turned into direct-from-source distributions with
> some mostly straightforward work.  Fink (the open source distro for
> Mac OS X) is a good example, based on dpkg, apt, and the overall
> "fink" distro manager---and it's not even Linux- or glibc-based.

You probably know this, but there's an alliance of people from Fink,
Opendarwin and Gentoo making slow but steady progress in an interesting
direction. Portage, the PMS (I was spraying coffee all over the screen
this morning, thank you very much) at the core of Gentoo's incredible
success, is being put to good use in http://www.metapkg.org, and similar
projects exist for Solaris, *BSD and the Hurd.

Technically, Portage may well be the only thing that sets Gentoo apart
from other source-based distributions like LFS, Rock Linux,
Sorcerer/Lunar/Source Mage (or whatever else their fork of the month may
be called). I don't see any contenders in terms of popularity even if
they added a competent way to manage packages. Gentoo has this unique
combination of geeky appearances on the outside and a mellow,
newbie-friendly attitude inside, much like a roasted marshmallow. Hugely
popular, and with the right people. Of course, I have to say that, Mauro
and Scott talked me into this... :)

Cheers
Ulrich Plate

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