Re: [tlug] Gentoo

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 02/04/2008, Joe Larabell <fred62@example.com> wrote:

> [Phillip Tribble wrote:]
>
> > I have portage installed ok. I am trying to avoid compiling everything and
> > install binaries.
>
>  Ummm... isn't compiling everything from scratch the whole crux of Gentoo?
>
>  (If that was meant to be an April Fool's joke, I'm going to look pretty
> stupid ;-)...

No April Fool's joke; you are safe. I think this will make a lot more
sense once you listen to the first rusher.webhop.org podcast (once I
get time to finish editing it!), wherein I convince Phil that Gentoo
pwnz Arch (sorry, Scott).

So, compiling everything from source is actually a side effect of the
real goal of the Gentoo meta-distribution, which is to give the user
total control over features and dependencies. If Phil is happy with
the features in the GRP packages or other binary packages, he gets the
Gentoo benefits without having to incur the compile time penalty.

I could see installing Gentoo completely from the GRP packages, then
re-emerging things on demand when you change your mind about which
features you need. I do this quite regularly, e.g. when I decide that
I want Amarok to use MySQL, I re-emerge it with the mysql USE flag
turned on.

-- 
Cheers,
Josh