Gentoo round 4 (and Sorcerer's continued)

[A. Khattri]

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004, Matthew Carpenter wrote:

> I may try this "porthole"
> app for GUI package management.  Ironically enough, it's *not* part of
> the repository :)

It is but its masked (probably because its new and still beta?):

[ Results for search key : porthole ]
[ Applications found : 1 ]

*  app-portage/porthole [ Masked ]
      Latest version available: 0.4.1
      Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]
      Size of downloaded files: 446 kB
      Homepage:    http://porthole.sourceforge.net
      Description: A GTK+-based frontend to Portage
      License:     GPL-2

You can unmask it if you want to give it a whirl.

> A couple concerns I have with Source-based distros:
> * Too long of an install makes it a dreaded event.  Slow lines (I have
> ISDN) can make the system useless while installing.  Perhaps longevity
> of each build makes up for this?

Stage 3 installs can be done pretty fast since most of the building is the
kernel. I always found RedHat installs took longer (mainly because I
insisted on doing custom installs, picking the packages myself and then
you get to the dependencies screen after package selection... ;-)

> * It's difficult to know what's available easily (like YaST2 Package
> Management has "major groups" and individual packages, viewable in
> several different ways to find your packages)

Try "esearch" (you may need to install it) or just browse the categories
under /usr/portage.

> * Source-based distros seem to take up a *lot* of resources (HD space im
> particular).

Yep, though its not so bad on servers (no KDE/Gnome, no X, etc).

> Gaming was the best test for every part of your system.  I'm beginning
> to think that maybe source-based distros are coming close.

My colleague (who is a FreeBSD guy) often does a "make world" to give the
system a thorough testing before deployment.

> * How much pain will I have to go through to get all my authentication
> run through Kerberos?

Ive never used Kerberos - Im sure there are more knowledgeable people here
to assist. The Gentoo forums/mailing lists are very good resources for
help.



-- 
angry fruit salad n.

 A bad visual-interface design that
   uses too many colors.  (This term derives, of course, from the
   bizarre day-glo colors found in canned fruit salad.)  Too often one
   sees similar effects from interface designers using color window
   systems such as X; there is a tendency to create displays that
   are flashy and attention-getting but uncomfortable for long-term
   use.