Mike Andrew wrote:
[snip]
> I did a custom install on an old ext2 partition reformatted to ext3 (by the
> installer). I strongly suspect that for the first time ever, if I had chosen
> 'workstation' I _probably_ would have got exactly what i wanted and saved
> myself a lot of finger picking. Redhat have dropped the 'powertools' approach
> and supply dual cd's. This means that the days of 'install everything' are
> probably over since there's now just too much stuff you'll never use. You
> really do need to pick thru, or at best, use the workstation/server type
> bundles. For hardened penguins, the Gentoo or Linux from Scratch distros
> where you minimalise the lot is a better option. I was hoping for a minimal
> install select on RH72 but didn't find one (unless you assume 'custom' means
> just that). RH73, or for that matter SuSe 74 should look at that 'feature',
> it's becoming a necessity. Once you install a kernel, an xfree, and a few
> admin tools, that should be good enough to boot and do the rest later. It
> took me over an hour to go thru each package I thought I wanted *before*
> continuing the install, this is frustrating because (as we know), you
> generally install twice due to boo-boos.
[snip]
Oh my. Linux From Scratch, while good, is not for most. I would hardly
recommend this to anyone unless they have a _very_ good understanding
how things work. For one thing, you have to know where/how PAM is
installed if you want to use it (LFS doesn't). And that's just for
starters.
That's not to say LFS isn't good. I use a heavily modified LFS baseline
to build custom CD firewalls and wireless access points that don't even
have hard drives. This isn't exactly for novices (although 15 minutes
on their mailing list and you'll think these are all 7 year olds playing
with their latest toy computer).
LFS probably is the most versatile, but unless you know how to fix
broken builds, probably not what you want.
I'd steer folks to true distros.
Ciao,
David A. Bandel
--
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
-- Nemesis Racing Team motto
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