Re: [Sheflug] A New Linux Box

[Seb James <seb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2008-10-27 at 08:57 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Saturday 25 October 2008 10:44:37 Richard Ibbotson wrote:
> 
> > My own personal point of view is to agree with some of the many UNIX
> > system administrators that I have met and worked with.  I used to
> > build PCs for IBM and Compaq.  So, just like other people working in a
> > commercial environment I like to build my own.   Hollywood and NASA
> > prefer the AMD processors and so I like to use AMD dual or quad core
> > 64 bit processors with lots of RAM.  1Gb to 4Gb or thereabouts.
> 
> If Tom is really going to learn Linux and its administration, he should 
> consider Gentoo Linux, 

I would qualify this:

If Tom wants to learn about the GNU/Linux build systems (Autotools and
friends) and Gentoo's complex (and excellent) scripting system for
automatically running those build tools, then he should install Gentoo
Linux.

If he wants to learn about Linux _system administration_, Gentoo would
be a bad choice, as he'd spend lots of time working out why package X
won't build, which would take time away from learning how to configure
and run package X.

For those who DO want to learn all the gory internal build/programming
Linux details, I believe building a Linux From Scratch system is the way
to go. In Gentoo, you spend loads of time learning the "Gentoo way",
which muddies the water rather.

regards,

Seb James




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