Non RPM Based Systems

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Non RPM Based Systems

Pros and Cons?

Nick_W

9:33 am on Oct 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

So,

I'm a bit fed up with RedHat. I prefer to build my packages from source and constantly have to overwrite RPMs to get the latest versions of stuff like glib and so forth....

I do love the RHN updates though. It's a big time saver.

What systems might suit me better?

Nick

seindal

12:41 pm on Oct 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

Isn't that what the FreeBSD ports system does: compile from source in the installation machine?

Personally, I'm a great fan of Debian and the way Debian's packaging system works. It is really quite easy to make your own packages too.

René

Nick_W

12:42 pm on Oct 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

Yeah, I was thinking of downloading sarge today and giving it a whirl...

Nick

seindal

12:50 pm on Oct 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

If you want the latest and greatest, you probably want to run sid. It sometimes break, but it's new :-)

I use woody/stable on servers, and sarge/testing on development machines.

René

dingman

12:07 am on Oct 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

you probably want to run sid. It sometimes break, but it's new :-)

There's a fun little package called apt-listbugs that can help you avoid a lot of the breakage, too.

If you find that Debian isn't your style, you might try one of the BSD flavors. Ports has a loyal following. Although I personally still prefer to use Debian, I think it's as much a matter of taste as anything.

martin

12:22 pm on Oct 27, 2003 (gmt 0)

I'm a big fan of Debian too, it's got the best package system and if you want you can make debs from source that will satisfy dependencies. I don't use it to build from source though, don't have the time to.

As far as I know Gentoo is a build all distro although they also have pre-compiled packages.

bcc1234

12:28 pm on Oct 27, 2003 (gmt 0)

Give FreeBSD a try. You can compile/install ports or just install pre-compiled packages and they are all noted in the package db, so there is never any confusion.

kenta

8:48 pm on Oct 27, 2003 (gmt 0)

Maybe try Gentoo linux? A friend of mine runs it and it seems like everything get compiled & optimized for your system from source.

MonkeeSage

9:13 pm on Oct 27, 2003 (gmt 0)

Nick_W:

Mandrake is similar to RedHat but also uses an RPM based package management system. But you can usually find source RPMs for your distribution on rpmfind or Freshmeat, in my experience at least, so it is my humble opinion that RPM is one of the more versatile formats. If you don't have the need / time for super-modified builds, just grab the binary RPM, otherwise grab the source. Then --rebuilddb once or twice a month to keep things clean. That's what I normally do anyhow. There is also an app called alien that lets you install Debian deb packages and others on RPM based systems, but I'm not very familiar with it.

Jordan

David

1:16 am on Oct 28, 2003 (gmt 0)

Gentoo is pretty cool. I just made the move from Redhat 9. With Gentoo you can stay as up to date with the new stuff as you want. I have compiled everything and the box is quicker. It took me two weeks to get comfortable enough to put the gentoo hard drive in for good.