Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Sun, 10 Jul 2005, sindi keesan wrote:

> He has been thinking about compiling his own linux so I referred him to
> linux from scratch.  I don't think his hard drive is big enough and he got
> the impression it required kernel 2.6.  LSF says it can take a few days to
> compile glibc on an older computer - is a 233MHz 'older'?  I expect to see
> him here at the list with specific questions about BL pretty soon when he
> gets done experimenting with other distributions and compiling from
> scratch, but first I still need to give him a Debian and a SuSE.
>
> He seems mainly interested in the process of putting together linux and
> compiling things, and networking (we finally got one crossover cable made
> correctly so he can try that next) and has not even used X yet (though he
> may need it for Abiword and to access webmail with popups).

Sounds like a good candidate for Gentoo. You should definitely tell him 
about it. LFS and Gentoo are the two best distros for these types. But 
with an older machine such as he has, _alot_ of patience will be required 
to do all the compiling. If the hardware is good, he could do a stage 1 
Gentoo install that would have most of the amenities in about a week. 
Depending on how much sleep he needs, it might take a little less than a 
week :) A stage 3 install (uses more precompiled components) could be done 
in 2 or 3 days on such a system.

James