[gentoo-dev] Gentoo install methods

[Jan Henkins]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of getting "geared" in getting Gentoo up and running. 
The reasons for me actually trying Gentoo are quite diverse, like being 
bored with Mandrake, cheesed at RedHat, dissappointed with Slackware (no 
native pam) etc. However, I'm a big OpenBSD fan, and what I see from 
your portage system looks very much like what Theo and his boys are 
using (with some steroids in your case). Very nice so far! I'll let you 
know how things are progressing, because in my case installation is 
going to take quite a while (P133 with 32Mb RAM).

Just a thought (I'm sure you were posed this question before...), how 
about making a set of source CD's available that can be accessed by 
portage as an alternative source of software? Debian's APT can do this, 
and even if I don't like Debian much I find that a very powerful 
feature. The main reason is that in developing countries like where I am 
(South Africa) Internet bandwidth is at a huge premium. Most people here 
would balk at the idea of installing an entire OS over the net, just 
having to do it yet again next time they install. Over here the run of 
the mill line clocks in at only 64 Kilobits per second (8 kilobytes), 
which is only a little bit faster than a 56k analogue modem. Get my 
drift? Anyway, have you looked at devising an ISO update scheme like 
Sorcery (or whatever they are calling themselves today...) Linux? They 
follow almost the same basic idea as you guys, but you can download 
their installation media as an ISO or sets of ISO's, and then update the 
ISO images with xdelta patches. That means you only download ISO images 
once. Neat idea! But even if one has to have a set of static Gentoo ISO 
images for basic installs, that would be preferable over not having them 
at all. You can always simply update certain packages later on (like 
OpenSSH etc.).

Nuff said for now. I'll pop you an Email when I'm finished with my 
installation "project".

-- 
Regards,
Jan Henkins
Project Manager: Transtel Linux Project
Tel: 	[phone]
Cell: 	[phone]