Re: [BLUG] Laconica, Enlightenment, and LFS

I ran Gentoo for a long time when it first came out (back when it had old-fashioned version numbers. I still have a stage 1 Gentoo 1.4 cd around somewhere at home), and I used to love it -- after I got through the 2 days of compiling software on my celeron 800 MHz at the time.

LFS would totally be for learning ... the boot process in particular is something that I have always wanted to understand better, and I will admit that I learned a TON about Linux while doing the gentoo stage 1 builds; seems like LFS is the next logical progression.

I do think though that I will look at Debian as a desktop distro for a change.

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> wrote:

On Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 10:06:01PM -0400, Kirk Gleason wrote:
>   • I just finished installed laconica microblogging service on a Linux host
>     for a pilot program at work.

I once did a quick personal time tracking app which relyied upon the
fact that I only did one thing at a time, and any time I mark I'm doing
something new, it implied I was done with the old activity. (This was an
aid to time-billing for a side project.)

This means that every task had a start time, and the end time was
implied by the start of the next task. At the end of the day, I'd mark
an "end" task. I then found the length of time between each transition,
and tallied up the billable parts. (Really, it was an order of magnitude
simpler than other time-tracking systems I've seen. 18 lines of BASH, 44
lines of Python, for 62 lines total.)

The thing is, this same approach is doable with Twitter/Laconica. I've
been thinking of a Twitter/Laconica-based time-tracking system, but I've
just never gotten around to writing it.

>   So I have a load of fairly stock linux servers running a bunch of
> different software (almost all OSS). The fun part is that all of my
> admins are Windows guys. We have no $$ for extra Windows licenses, so
> Linux it is. I suppose the most exciting thing I am doing with Linux
> right now is my own in-house training for all of these admins who are
> hesitant (or is it stubborn) to embrace linux.

That is super sweet.

I hope more of them embrace it than fight it. Of course, it won't happen
immediately, but a surprising number of Windows folks have never seen
any other option.

>   Since work bought me a Mac laptop, I have not run a Linux desktop.
> However, that itch is starting to come back, so maybe someday soon.
> Anyone know of any new promising looking distros? Maybe something with
> E17?

Now, E16 is one thing. It is stable, and should be available as a
package (called e16) in any Debian-derived distribution. (Speaking of
which, if you have PPC Macs, Debian may be one of the last Linux distros
which actively supports them. I found the Debian support better than the
"community" Ubuntu support last I tried it.)

E17 is another matter, though. It is considered experimental. You can
get packages for a number of distributions from the website:

   http://www.enlightenment.org/p.php?p=download&l=en

This may be your best bet. However, as that page says "There are no
guarentees if these packages will work as expected. If you experience
any problems with DR17 or the EFL using the packages, please first refer
to the packagers, not to the Enlightenment team."

>   Last thing. I have also been toying with the idea of an LFS system.
> Has anyone ever done it?

I've done LFS. I went as far as some of the Extended LFS stuff. (That
is, I completed LFS, and installed other apps which actually made the
system usable on a daily basis.)

My big problem with LFS is simple: If you use any new software (whether
new versions, or different apps) and you experience unexpected flaws
in things you expect to work, the first person to blame is yourself.
(If you use a distribution, the first person to blame is the package
maintainer. Since you're the maintainer, you get the blame.)

This is to say: If you treat LFS as a learning experience, then go
for it. It *is* a learning experience. It is really designed to be a
learning experience.

Do *not* do it, if you think that it is a short-cut to newer "cutting
edge" apps, or if you think it is at all feasable for a long-term
distribution. It isn't designed as a long-term distribution. If you try
to use it as a long-term distribution, then not only are you claiming
first responsibility for any bugs you find, you're also claiming sole
responsiblity for tracking and fixing security flaws. (You'd need to
monitor security sites, as well as the authors website, then installing
the patch, recompile, and reinstall. Sometimes, you'd need to track down
all apps and libraries that link to lib${SOMETHING} and recompile or
relink them.)

That being said, I think Gentoo, being source-based, is probably the
current best-bet for a long-term distribution similar to LFS. If you do
LFS, and decide you have an unhealthy fondness for waiting for compiles
to finish, you can leverage all your LFS-generated "mad skills" as a
Gentoo user.

Cheers,

--
Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> / KeyID: 8596FA8E
Fingerprint: 108C 089C EFA4 832C BF07  78C2 DE71 5433 8596 FA8E

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