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  • Linux From Scratch 8.0 Released

    Phoronix: Linux From Scratch 8.0 Released

    It's been a while since hearing anything out of the Linux From Scratch (LFS) camp, but this weekend they announced the release of LFS 8.0 as well as Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS) 8.0...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    It's fun to know how things work. I still remember when I used it a few years ago. Other than that, it's not very practical.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by wargames View Post
      It's fun to know how things work. I still remember when I used it a few years ago. Other than that, it's not very practical.
      Oh, it's practical enough... I used LFS as my regular desktop for more than a decade. But it does require a fair amount of investment in time.

      The actual compilation time isn't a big deal - any modern machine can keep up with that, and any serious LFS user has scripts for doing most of the work. But unless you're just relying on the work done by the BLFS editors for all the non-core packages (like your desktop), it requires you to be paying close attention to projects, looking at release announcements (especially security), looking at any big changes coming up that might affect you.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Delgarde View Post

        Oh, it's practical enough... I used LFS as my regular desktop for more than a decade. But it does require a fair amount of investment in time.

        The actual compilation time isn't a big deal - any modern machine can keep up with that, and any serious LFS user has scripts for doing most of the work. But unless you're just relying on the work done by the BLFS editors for all the non-core packages (like your desktop), it requires you to be paying close attention to projects, looking at release announcements (especially security), looking at any big changes coming up that might affect you.
        Well, many would include the amount of time something consumes in the assessment of its practicality. My LFS installation didn't last very long, it was a useful learning experience, though, and it taught me something about the anatomy of a GNU/Linux system.

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        • #5
          LFS user here. Started using linux in 1995 (slackaware at the time). Then in 1998 Redhat 5.0 came out which was kinda revolutionary for its time (semi-graphical install, good sound support, working XFree86, etc). It was a big improvement in user friendliness. But at some point in 2000 they released a version with the highly controversial gcc 2.96. At the time I was looking for a good video player, discovered MPlayer and tried to install it. In those early days you did not have yum and all the other goodies. So you had to rely on upstream support for your distribution. Unfortunately, Mplayer not only did not have pre-built RPMs for RedHat, but they had some harsh words for RedHat for their decision to go with the known broken compiler which was producing broken code. So they suggested that people switch to a good distribution, called LFS. I was intrigued and did try it. It was the best decision I've ever made in my 22 years of using Linux. The learning curve was very steep and the learning process has never stopped, but I've become a better user because of it.

          To me LFS is not a distribution. It's a mindset -- the courage to step off the well-trodden path, the temerity to look beyond what someone else thought is the best solution, and the arrogance to think you can improve on it. But more that that, it's a the feeling of independence akin to when you learn to ride a bike -- initially you have your parent's steady hand helping you to stay upright, then you start peddling and gathering speed. Suddenly you realize there's no more a "helping hand" propping you up, but also holding you down. You are on your own and start going real fast real soon. Sure, sometimes you fall and bruise your knee. Plenty of times I deleted my / or made my system unbootable. But that's how you learn, how you progress.

          Most LFS users tend to cut the umbilical cord at some point and use LFS as a reference, occasionally, and make their OS their own living thing. We call it LFS, out for respect for our roots, but also because people feel comfortable with names and labels, and there is no easy label for an OS you create. Most of us have our own build scripts that automate all the mundane, boring, time consuming tasks like building the system. I have even a build system that can, withing 90 minutes, start with a blank harddisk, find the latest version of all the packages it will build, download them, and build a coherent and working OS, and the final result is a hybrid image that I can burn as a live CD or a usb thumbdrive. None of these features are available in LFS. I'm sure other LFSers have done even better things with their LFS.

          If you follow the academic path, you will only learn what your teachers have learned from their teachers. If you want to learn more, stray off into the unknown. Fail a hundred times in order to succeed on the 101st. It will be worth all the previous 100 "failures".

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          • #6
            I like LFS over gentoo in some aspects, in gentoo ancient gcc 4.9.4 is still being used during initial install/compilation, with LFS you can just jump straight into your choice compiler and start with newest gcc.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by tinko View Post
              Well, many would include the amount of time something consumes in the assessment of its practicality.
              Eh, it's not like the time was wasted. Even though I no longer use LFS, I still follow a lot of the projects - Gnome, Mozilla, etc - because it's interesting to me.

              Originally posted by tinko View Post
              My LFS installation didn't last very long, it was a useful learning experience, though, and it taught me something about the anatomy of a GNU/Linux system.
              Certainly, maintaining an LFS system for more than ten years taught me a lot about a great many subjects... top of the list being how to develop good maintainable shell scripts, but also a good knowledge of various build systems, and the development processes of a great many projects. I've never contributed much to any single open-source project, but as an LFS user, I've made small contributions to a great many of them...

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              • #8
                Never heard of this LFS before, but it sounds similar to the Gentoo concept of compiling everything from source. Not really practical for any sort of production work, but certainly a good education tool for learning how Linux works.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by torsionbar28 View Post
                  Never heard of this LFS before, but it sounds similar to the Gentoo concept of compiling everything from source. Not really practical for any sort of production work, but certainly a good education tool for learning how Linux works.
                  Except that LFS goes even further than Gentoo. For example, there's no package system (Gentoo at least has Portage). It also allows you to start fully from scratch, unlike Gentoo which still uses some default tools during installation (ye old GCC 4.9.4, for example).

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by torsionbar28 View Post
                    Never heard of this LFS before, but it sounds similar to the Gentoo concept of compiling everything from source. Not really practical for any sort of production work, but certainly a good education tool for learning how Linux works.
                    LFS users can act snub towards Gentoo users and it would be totally justified.

                    LFS is like Gentoo^2, Gentoo can be very source-oriented but it is still a recognizable distro (package managers, repositories, maintainers, and so on), LFS is not even a distro in the common sense of the word, it is a bunch of scripts, sites and documentation to make your own Linux from raw sources.

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