Has Linux gone binary?

[Jeremy Fowler]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net
> [mailto:owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of Jonathan Hutchins
> Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 9:04 AM
> To: 'Andrew Bates'; kclug at kclug.org
> Subject: RE: Has Linux gone binary?
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Andrew Bates [mailto:andrewb at litecode.net]
>
> > people are asking about where to get an rpm.. rather than a
> > source..
>
> Although make scripts do some pretty amazing things, automatically
> customizing the compile for distribution variations like library versions
> and file locations, there's one thing you can't do:  Uninstall.  You have to
> hack back through the make script manually, discover every little change it
> made, and undo it by hand.  Miss something?  You could be facing a crashed
> system.

Not true, if the software supports automake, like most GNU software, the 'make
uninstall' command will undo whatever 'make install' does. That is if you keep
the source tree around after you compile. However, I'm not sure how it handles
changed files and/or config files. I'll have to look into that.

> With binaries, though: rpm -e package.  All gone.
>
> Distributions like RedHat and Mandrake are also doing a lot to bring new
> people into Linux, people who may eventually learn enough to be comfortable
> with compile/installs, but need a little hand holding to get started.
>
> For the intellectual purists there is always gentoo, and the software coded
> by people who believe the source files are all the documentation anyone
> should ever need.

Common now, that's a bit of an over simplification there. I think Gentoo is
rather easy to use and it's well documented with all kinds of Howtos on their
website. I think every Linux enthusiast should try Gentoo at least once, just so
they can see what a real distro looks like. ;-P Tip: Unless you enjoy watching
screenfulls of compiler messages scroll past your monitor for days on end, make
sure you have all your USE flags set right the first time! But then again, I get
a kick out of putting my processor to work... It's sick really.

>