[H-GEN] Linux distributions

Robert Brockway robert at timetraveller.org
Tue Aug 28 22:42:09 EDT 2012


On Tue, 28 Aug 2012, Paul Gear wrote:

> I've been doing Linux since 1994. [1] I don't balk at compiling 
> software; i did several years of C & C++ programming back in the day. 
> I just don't like wasting time doing it when most of the time there are 
> no options of significance, and it gains me nothing.  Most of my clients 
> don't pay me to compile stuff, they pay me to make Linux work.

My experiences are similar to Paul's.  I started with Linux in '94 and had 
to compile a lot of stuff in those days.  I used to compile the kernel for 
years after I didn't bother compiling anything else but now I rarely even 
do that.

I looked in to the advantages of recompiling large parts of the system 
many years ago and the analysis I read suggested that the performance 
advantage was generally less than 2%.  Even if the figure was higher than 
that now I doubt I'd be interested.

I'd rather have stability and determinism over performance.  Using distro 
maintained binary packages allows me to enjoy the testing they have 
performed on those exact packages as well as being able to easily track 
bugs against those exact packages.

If I rebuild the packages (even from distro blessed source) I've taken 
over certain responsibilities for package maintenace from the distro.

I'm seeing this from the POV of a professional sysadmin of course, who is 
aiming to provide a stable deterministic service to clients and employers.

Cheers,

Rob

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