Re: linux <-> lego?

From: Joe (joe_at_jretrading.com)
Date: 10/15/03 

Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 21:22:51 +0100

In message <tAUib.561297$cF.238167@rwcrnsc53>, David
<thunderbolt01@netscape.net> writes
>For Personal Use Only wrote:
>> first of all: i never had any contact with linux, except that i read
>> some articles in magazines and a few headlines in books.
>> as far as i got the thing, linux is composed of a kernel and several
>> modules which add funtionality. so basically any distribution could,
>> with addition and subtraction of the corresponding modules, become a
>> completely different distribution. it appears to me that a
>> distribution is nothing but a kernel and a specific set of modules. is
>> this correct?
>> and if so, what would be the proper blanco-distribution to start
>>with?
>
>If you are new to linux then probably Mandrake would be an easy distro
>for a newbie. If you want to learn linux then Slackware, Gentoo, or
>even LinuxFromScratch but these can be difficult and confusing to start
>with if you have never done anything other than point-N-click like
>windows teaches.
>
Even if you don't use it, download the current 'book' of Linux From
Scratch and read through it. Here you will find a detailed, step-by-step
set of instructions for building just about the smallest possible
running Linux (using conventional software: I'm not counting the exotics
like Tom's). You will also see a basic set of initialisation scripts.
There is more than one convention for these scripts, but the most common
is called SysV, and these scripts conform to that.

It's hard work to build a reasonably full Linux using LFS, but it gives
you some idea of what goes into the bigger distros. The Debian
installation leads to a very minimal Linux, and then allows you to pick
what else you want. The installer is reasonably friendly, and this may
be the best route for a beginner to build a system in the way you
describe.

The problem is that you have no way of knowing what all the Debian
packages are, and what they do, without considerable experience of using
Linux. For example, there is no package called 'mail server'. There are
several mail packages, of several different kinds, and you need to find
out what they all do before you can assemble a network email system. On
the other hand, you only need one package to implement simple email with
your ISP. But which one?

As recommended elsewhere, play with a full Linux distro first. Knoppix
allows you to play without even installing anything to hard drive,
though it is slower than an installed system. Mandrake, Red Hat and Suse
are the three main conventional distros, and are regularly featured on
covers of Linux magazines. Best of all, also as described elsewhere,
install a large distro but leave space on your hard drive for one or two
more, and as you learn, you can also try a do-it-yourself Debian system.
If it doesn't do what you expect, go back to the big distro and work out
what the differences are.

Do bear in mind that you need to use the packages from one distro at a
time. The configuration of a package allows it to work in the system it
is designed for. If you were to drop a Debian version of, for example,
Postfix into a Red Hat distribution, there would be no chance of it
working. You would need to find the Red Hat Postfix, and even then it
must be the one for that particular Red Hat distro. Configuration change
a lot between versions of a distribution. Alternatively, you can obtain
the source code for Postfix, and you can then compile it to work in any
distribution. You need to know a lot about the particular distribution
before you can do this successfully.

As you say, Linux is very much a modular system. It's just a lot more
complicated than Lego. 

-- 
Joe

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