On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 4:59 AM, Joel Roth <joelz@???> wrote:
> Apollia wrote:
>> I've also increasingly been considering trying to build my own Linux from
>> scratch, probably using this website as a guide:
>> http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/
>
> There are more automated ways to do this:
>
> http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/alfs/
>
> You may be interested to know that Gobo Linux is based on ALFS.
>
> --
> Joel Roth

Cool, thanks for introducing me to this stuff. :-D

I'm delighted by Gobo Linux's novel approach to organizing the
standard Linux directory structure!

http://www.gobolinux.org/?page=at_a_glance

I've always been bothered by how confusing and disorganized Linux's
standard directory structure seems, and wished I had way to stop
packages from scattering their contents everywhere, and instead put
everything together in one place.

But, I never tried to fix that myself, since I assumed it was probably
an unfixable problem (with any solution maybe being more likely to
cause worse problems than the problem of all the confusing
disorganization), because every Linux I ever tried did things the
usual way.


The closest thing to an improvement I previously knew of was Puppy
Linux's layered filesystem (described here:
http://puppylinux.com/development/howpuppyworks.html ) and SFS
(SquashFS) files.

One reason SFS files appeal to me is because, in Puppy, using a Bash
script named "sfs_load", you can install and uninstall a lot of files
in seconds just by mounting or unmounting an SFS file, with (I
believe) less risk of overwriting existing files than using a Puppy
.pet file to install things. (There are glitches at times -
http://astroblahhh.com/puppy-linux/Some_Puppy_Linux_Basics.shtml#sfs-related-glitches-ive-encountered
- but I'm sure those could be fixed somehow.) Overall, using SFS
files seems to me to be tidier, more organized and well-contained than
just installing things directly to the main layer.

But, since I don't know of a way to view only certain layers instead
of all the layers combined, even Puppy's SFS files add to my
unpleasant perception of clutter everywhere.


http://www.gobolinux.org/index.php?page=documentation

The Compile, ChrootCompile, and Recipes parts of Gobo Linux also catch
my eye. Those might rescue me from trying to reinvent some wheels.
:-)

I was just recently thinking (and even blogging) about how it would
probably be better in general if people were less dependent on
repositories of precompiled software, and had more automated tools to
assist them in downloading and compiling software packages themselves.


I look forward to trying Gobo Linux at some point and seeing if it
works as well as I hope. :-) Wonder if any of its features might be
good in Devuan, too?

I'll also try ALFS eventually.

Thanks again. :-)

Best wishes,
Apollia