[mythtv-users] Which Distro?

[gLaNDix (Jesse Kaufman)]

Jarod Wilson wrote:
> We're getting a bit OT, and I promise to stop after this one (or take it 
> off-list :-).

yup, same here, last post on this :)


> There are some 
> small increases in desktop performance, but none that were enough to make me 
> want to stick with it and live through endless compiling when I want 
> something new installed (yes, I know there are binary packages, but then why 
> not just use an RPM- or deb-based distro?).

i still prefer compiling from source ... coming from a freebsd 
background (w/ the ports tree), i prefer it and like knowing exactly 
what code is being installed ... plus, i like using distros which either 
have no patches (slackware) or only the patches i select (gentoo) for 
the kernel ... RH puts *way* too many patches in, which makes it hard, 
since you're never really running kernel x.y.z, you're running some 
hacked kernel that resembles it and has the same version number ... 
plus, you never know when another gcc issue is going to come up and RH 
will release a CVS version as a stable version :(


> Part of it may be that I refuse to use anything slow enough where optimizing 
> the living hell out of bash provides a significant percentage increase in 
> performance (I'm being facetious about bash, of course).

really?  oh man, i use all the CFLAGS i can get to optimize the heck out 
of bash :p haha


> True, you get extra gunk if you use Red Hat's rookie-friendly "Server Install" 
> option, which gives you all these Gnome gui-based system-config-* utilities, 
> but any seasoned RH vet should be doing custom installs, preferrably via 
> kickstarts, with which you can get pretty damned minimal.

yeah, but why deal with anaconda and all it's questions when i can do a 
slack install in less than half the time (yes, i've timed it, since i've 
installed both many, many times in the past few years) and have to go 
around cleaning crap up and removing packages (from my experience, even 
the minimal install has stuff i don't want) ... with slack, i can do a 
minimal install in no time and have next to no packages installed, then 
use slapt-get to install the things i want ... plus, i greatly prefer FS 
layout of slack or gentoo compared to RPM-based distros ... can't say 
one debian-based ones, since i haven't used debian in 5+ years ...


> Note that Red Hat is either number one or two in terms of market-share for 
> embedded use (if they're two, they've been passed by "build your own"), so 
> its obviously very possible to get an extremely tiny install footprint.

Windows is the most used desktop OS ... just because it's #1 or #2 
doesn't necessarily mean it's the best for the job ;) ...

anyway, thanks for the insight
-g-