Slashdot Mirror
Review of Sorcerer GNU Linux
ladislavb writes: "Sorcerer GNU Linux is not just another Linux distribution. It did not follow the tried and tested path of modifying a major Linux distribution and releasing it under a new name. Instead, the Sorcerer development team embarked on a completely unconventional way of putting together a unique distribution with features not found anywhere else. Once installed, it will be 100% optimised for your hardware, it will include the very latest Linux applications and it will provide an incredibly convenient way of keeping all software, even essential system libraries, up-to-date. The full review of Sorcerer GNU Linux, as written by DistroWatch.com."
I recompiled Qt from source on my four-year-old machine the other day, and it took six hours. I'm not recompiling every bit of software on my machine... it would take weeks. I doubt I could even fit all the source code on my HDD. But then it's a seriously retro setup so I'm probably making a fuss about nothing.
Where I think this would come into its own is on a site, like a university or large company, where there are (a) hundreds of identical machines with exactly the same specification (down to the position of the sticker on the case), and (b) people who know what they're doing (ha ha) in charge. You could amortize the time taken to create the optimised system over the savings once you've installed it on every PC.
I wonder if they support using a compile farm to perform the rebuild? That would be sweet.
These sigs are more interesting tha
I think this is an interesting idea but has a few flaws.
First they ask that your swap image be at least 1gb in size. I don't know about everyone else, but my linux partition is just 2gb so that's half of my disk already. I know, I know, these days everyone has 30, 40, and 60gb drives so it's not a big deal. Maybe it's just time for me to get more iron.
Anyways, the big feature this distro seems to be claiming is the automatic (and seamless updates). You can run this "sorcery update" command in a cron job at night and have a brand spanking new system the next morning. While this sounds like the cats meow, what if I don't want the latest and greatest? I personally don't to live on the bleeding edge and don't always want the lastest. Also, who decides what's the latest? The latest beta? Is it running the 2.4.17 kernel or something even newer? What version of KDE does it have?
It's also a huge distribution and requires a dedicated weekend to get up and running. The name implies that it's something that a beginner could sit down and startup with, but this is not the case. If you're looking for a simple install, stick with Mandrake/RedHat or something. If you have a few gigs to chew up and a weekend to burn, maybe give it a try.
liB
I am sure it is all nice and optimised when you compile everything from source.
There is just one disadvantage; while you are compiling that latest version of XFree86, gnome or kde the computer does not feel really optimised.
Compiling everything is just too much hassle, and takes too much time and computing power.
For a server there are not that many packages installed, so it can be usefull. But on my desktop I have about 2Gb software installed. Keeping that up to date.......nah.
Just let me update everything from binary, be it apt-get or urpmi.
Btw, I have a friend who was horrified when I showed him apt-get. Do you update from binaries? Do you call that security?
He liked to install security-updates from source.
When asking sometime later how he kept his FreeBSD boxes up to date he said he did not do that. He felt safe behind a firewall.
Hmm, I guess it is just too much hassle.
Well, don't worry about that. We can get you back before you leave. (Dr. Who)
The user would then pick what software they want installed on their system, as per any other distro.
The server site can then take the source, recompile it for that configuration, and generate a set of ISO images containing the optimized setup for that machine.
One advantage of this approach is that if you're installing on multiple identical machines, you would only go through the process once. Once it's done, you'd have a set of "instant" install CDs. No menus, no further tweaking, just a direct blast onto the hard drive(s).
A second advantage is that a server site can have a compiler farm, making the build process MUCH quicker than would be possible for an individual.
A third advantage is that if someone sends in a configuration which matches one that's already been done, the compiler farm only needs to rebuild updated packages. The rest has already been done. The CDs can then be built out of freshly-compiled binaries and pre-compiled ones.
A fourth advantage is start-up time. Because you're downloading a very basic bootstrap, rather than a mini-distro, the time to download, install and run is going to be much much less.
The last advantage is when it comes to updating your system. Again, with all the compiling being done on a remote compiler farm, the time it would take to do a basic update would be minimal, compared to Sorcerer, and far more optimal, compared to Up2Date or Red-Carpet.
The key to something like this would be the detection of hardware and (on networks) servers. Kudzu is good, but it's limited. sensors-detect is OK, but it's specific. I don't know what Anaconda uses to detect the graphics stuff, but again that is good, but specific. Any router can detect other routers working with the same protocol. There's plenty of stuff that none of the above detect, but would need to, for a truly optimized build & auto-configure. (Is the network multicast-aware? Will the network support ECN? What is/are the IP addresses of routers on the network? Where is a DNS server? Is the sound device better supported under ALSA or OSS? Do memory constraints indicate optimizing for speed or size? etc.)
An optimized build is more than just tweaking the configure options. It's also choosing the right compiler (where multiple options exist). It's setting up the configuration files for those things that can be discovered. It's about asking for the information that's needed, rather than the information that can be found out.
My idea would be that the servers would have a database, containing source and binaries, identified by a 1-way hash of the relevent hardware information. This avoids any privacy issues, as there's nothing private stored. Each access would amount to a search for all records where the hashes of the relevent hardware match. For updates, the user's machine could then select/deselect stuff it already had. The rest would be put into ISO form, and be available for download.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)