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Beyond Linux From Scratch 1.0 Released

Posted by michael on from the if-you-want-it-done-right dept.

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...

2 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. It is not a distro by AccUser · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  2. Re:How different from Gentoo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's actually very different from Gentoo. There's
    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 /bin & /sbin to be
    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.