[gentoo-user] Re: Tips/Tricks for Gentoo on low-spec computer?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2009-01-20, Dirk Heinrichs <dirk.heinrichs@××××××.de> wrote:

> Don't know if this is possible with portage, I switched to
> paludis a long time ago. However, with paludis, one can setup
> several environments, each with a different set of USE flags,
> CFLAGS, etc., where each will be installed into a different
> root directory. Inside this root directory, everything looks
> like a normal install.
>
> So you could mount the complete filesystem tree of the slow
> machine on a faster one (via NFS), compile everything on the
> fast machine and let it install to /root_of_slow_box.

Thanks, that's an interesting option.  Next time I go through
this exercise I'll give it a try.

>> I chose XFCE for the desktop along with both Abiword and
>> OpenOffice. I probably should have installed OOo from a binary
>> package, but I decided to build it just to see how long it
>> would take (so far it's at about 26 hours and counting).
>
> Hehe, I once did a "Linux from Scratch" install on my Amiga.
> Compiling GCC took ages to complete, didn't even dare to think
> about something like OOo.
>
> I always use FVWM on low power machines. It's quite fast and,
> with the crystal theme, looks very nice.

I used fvwm (and fvwm2) for many years (starting with a 25MHz
80486 with 8MB of RAM) before switching to XFCE 5-6 years ago.
About 10 years ago I configured a couple manufacturing test
stations with fvwm95 so that they would be comfortable for
people who normally used MS Windows.  I think a couple of the
users never even realized it was Linux.

There was something in particular that prompted my change from
fvwm2 to XFCE, but I can't remember what it was...

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow! RHAPSODY in Glue!
                                  at               
                               visi.com