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Beyond Linux From Scratch 1.0 Released
An anonymous reader writes "DistroWatch reports about the 1.0 release of Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS), a subproject of Linux From Scratch: 'The BLFS Development team is proud to announce the release of BLFS 1.0. With this release, you can take your LFS 4.1 base beyond a development system. It can be a desktop, a firewall, a multimedia player/editor, an Apache web server or all of the above. You install only what you need. Your Distro. Your Rules. Enjoy.'" Choose the closest mirror...
Linux From Scratch [linuxfromscratch.org] is not a disto, but a set of instructions for building a GNU/Linux system from little more than an existing distro. The Beyond Linux From Scratch [linuxfromscratch.org] project builds on this tradition, providing instructions for installing a number of other packages.
:-)
Having said that, I would recommend that anyone serious about furthering their knowledge of Linux, and at least 750MB of free hard disk space should give it a go. I got into Linux back in '93, and knew quite a lot. Then I stumbled across Linux From Scratch (LFS) - I didn't realise how much I didn't know until finishing my first complete build.
I now run an number of LFS-based systems at home and at work, and have never looked back.
BTW, I am typing this on my Gentoo [gentoo.org], 1.4_rc4 build.
Any fool can talk, but it takes a wise man to listen.
I've installed LFS before. LFS is just the instructions on how to install Linux from scratch (hence the name, Linux From Scratch). They supply a few pieces of software conveniently in one place so you don't have to spend hours finding it on your own and figuring out what version goes with what. It is just enough to get an OS that works, but not enough to do much except put more software on it.
BLFS is a collection of instructions for installing various bits of popular software like Gnome, KDE, Mozilla, and more.
I would like to point out that LFS is not Gentoo. LFS is literally Linux From Scratch. There are no installation scripts. There are no system management tools. There is no pretty interface, or simple instructions. It is a book, not a piece of software.
You literally go through each piece of software and configure, compile, and install it. It is pretty cool because they describe what each piece of software is for, and you can see how one piece builds on another. You'll certainly never look at your system the same again, because you'll know what each bit does.
I wouldn't suggest trying LFS unless you are interested in what exactly goes on under the hood, or you are building your own distro from scratch.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
It's actually very different from Gentoo. There's
/bin & /sbin to be
a whole host of choices you can make when building
a package from source. Most of these are made for
you in the ports setup.
For instance, I may prefer *not* to have GNU
gettext linked into everything. Or perhaps I want
every installed program in
statically linked so I can recover if my
libraries somehow get hosed.
Don't get me wrong, Gentoo is good for eeking
performance out of your dist. But you don't
get exposed to nearly as many design decisions
as you do when building from scratch. I recommend
that anyone serious about *nix admin try it at
least once.
On your last point, I wholeheartedly agree.
When you upgrade/install a package from source
on a production system, you're basically trusting
that the creator of the package you're installing
has thouroughly tested it. This usually is not
the case. When you install a package from your
vendor, they've at least done some basic testing.
Beond Linux From Scratch is a great resource for expanding an LFS system, but don't forget about the LFS hints! http://hints.linuxfromscratch.org
There is lots of valuable information in the form of hints that is not available in BLFS