KatolaZ wrote:

>You forget the fourth step:
>4) wait for a certain amount of time before your package is compiled.

Sure, but unless you install software all the time each day one by one,
it doesn't really matter. CRUX is not a rolling-release distro, doesn't have
package revisions as in Debian, so there it works and that's great I think.
Count also their aims to keep things minimal and as simple as possible.

>I won't enter here the long-lasting flame on why compiling the same
>software on every single machine that uses it is just a waste of time
>(and resources), so I will simply say "No thanks, I don't want a
>source-based distro".

Sure, if you are an admin with 100 servers it is waste of time.
I simply love the diversity in the Unix world.

>The problem is that as a general-purpose distribution you can't
>forget that 5% of users who will need some of that 95% usually useless
>stuff...

I reckon those 5% should be able to compile their own kernel if they need things
no one uses. It is also about the scope, you know, the target audience, because who
mostly uses Debian: too fat/too skinny server admin with ponytail and acne
(don't even try to argue, I've seen too many of them in our local Unix conferences (: ),
the same actually applies to CentOS then; these chaps are geeks by nature and surely
have some knowledge about the kernel itself. But, of course, as I previously said,
there is no need to spend time compiling things if you have 100 servers (even if ten).


My €0.02
Mitt