On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 1:28 PM, Gour <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello! > > Today I was (again) looking into putting my /etc under dvcs and > (again) stumbled upon etckeeper which has support for Frugalware's > pacman-g2, but not for the pacman which I use on Archlinux. > > I'm using Archlinux (x86_64 for ~5yrs and before that I was > 5yrs on > Gentoo, mostly using ~arch64. > > Last spring I had short excursion to FreeBSD, but soon returned to > Archlinux due to some missing packages not working on FreeBSD > (cinelerra, vuescan...). > > I also did install Ubuntu on few desktops (not mine), but could never > grok it. > > Moreover, we consider Arch as kind of 'sweet-spot' between Gentoo and > Ubuntu having most of the packages available as binaries and allowing > one to easily build custom packages from the source using PKGBUILD > mechanism. > > I also like Arch's 'rolling release' nature which makes updating from > one 'version' to another very easy. > > Otoh, after already spending quite some times with computers, I also > prefer to have stable desktop and not to be always forced to do some > tweaking and doing admin work. > > My current DE is Xfce, use raid-1 setup (2x1TB disks) and everything > is under lvm2 (/boot, swap, / & /home) and I like/use simple syslinux > boot loader which boot my OS from GPT disks. > > Based on the above requirements, I wonder if Frugalware might be > viable option for me? > > I did read FAQ, noticed there are no AUR and I'm not into using git > (using bzr-git & hg-git when required), so wonder if it would be still > easy-enough to contribute missing packages (e.g. Frugal lacks support > for D language - dmd, gdc, ldc compilers) and/or to provide local repo > for installing/maintaining them? > > Arch's wiki > ( > https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Compared_to_Other_Distributions#Frugalware) > page mentions these points: > > - Arch is command-line oriented. > > - Frugalware has adopted Arch's pacman as its package manager, but > uses bzipped tarballs. In contrast, Arch uses xz compressed (lzma) > tarballs, for the purpose of expedience of installation. > > - Frugalware does not support the JFS filesystem by default. > > - Both Arch and Frugalware are promoted as i686 optimized. > > - Arch can be installed as a minimal environment first and later > expanded with pacman according to the user's choices and needs. > Frugalware is installed from a DVD, with default software choices > and desktop environment chosen for the user already. > > - Frugalware has a scheduled release cycle. Again, Arch is more > focused on simplicity, minimalism, code-correctness and bleeding > edge packages within a rolling-release model. > > and in my estimation only the last point matters, but I need some more > light on it? > > (Tried to install frugalware-current under virtualbox, but it looks > that installer does not like GPT-labelled disk and wonder if it > supports syslinux? Will try to install again later...) > > > Sincerely, > Gour > > p.s. I'm excusing myself if this is the wrong place to ask, but 'users' > list seems to be not active since April last year.... > > -- > One is understood to be in full knowledge whose every endeavor > is devoid of desire for sense gratification. He is said by sages > to be a worker for whom the reactions of work have been burned > up by the fire of perfect knowledge. > > http://atmarama.net | Hlapicina (Croatia) | GPG: 52B5C810 > > _______________________________________________ > Frugalware-devel mailing list > [email protected] > http://frugalware.org/mailman/listinfo/frugalware-devel >
Hi and wellcome. Users is probably not that active so it's OK if you ask here. I'm afraid I can't really answer all your technical questions but I can answer some of them. First I'd like to mention that the comparison in the Arch wiki is wrong/outdated. 1. Frugalware does use xz to compress packages right now. 2. You can use the netinstall ( minimal LiveCD ) or CD1 to just install "base" and then use pacman to just install everything else you need 3. Frugalware does have a rolling release called current, once every 6 month there's a freeze and that becomes the stable. Some people need/use stable while the devs and many others use the rolling release current. We keep current in a working state at all times and it's usable even though it might have some bugs and stuff now and then. Compared to Arch we try and make things easier for the user that no intervention is required and such things, there's no messages that you need to do this and that. Indeed we have no AUR but all our packages are maintained by developers and if you need anything you can contribute a FrugalBuild or ask for one in the bug tracker. It's not that hard to make a FrugalBuild and contribute it, see here : http://frugalware.org/docs/getting-involved.html Our installer is not in a pretty good shape right now so I'm not sure about that... someone else should answer those questions. We're going to develop a new installer though but I'm not sure when that will be ready. A normal install works in VirtualBox, it do work for me that is .... I just created 2 primary partitions from the virtual drive ( / and swap ) and used that. What I want to make clear is that we're open to contributions , suggestions and any improvements you might think of .... So even if Frugalware might not suit your needs from the start we can work on it together. Thanks for deciding to try Frugalware and hope to see you around. IRC is also a good place to talk to us, #frugalare.dev on freenode. _______________________________________________ Frugalware-devel mailing list [email protected] http://frugalware.org/mailman/listinfo/frugalware-devel
