Re: [gentoo-dev] Binary release of gentoo

[Dylan Carlson <absinthe@gentoo.org>]

On Wednesday 09 April 2003 08:13 pm, Noah Justin Norris wrote:
> Is there any interest to start a binary release of gentoo with
> precompiled binaries. Im talking the entire source tree i know many
> people that would switch to gentoo if they would not have to compile
> every thing from source . not everyone has the fastest computer out
> there.

A "binary release of Gentoo" is out of scope for what Gentoo is trying to 
provide.  We are primarily a source-based distribution, and that's where 
our priorities are set.  Compiling the OS from scratch is not for 
everyone, which we recognize and that's fine ...

There are some packages which make sense to have prebuilt binary options, 
namely Java classes... and large packages which strip CFLAGS at compile 
time, or ones that otherwise don't have any advantage of being compiled 
from source.  We would be very selective of the packages which actually 
use this feature, as we are about -bin packages currently.

The topic of source-or-binary ebuilds (user selectable) is actively being 
debated in -core.   Several options are being discussed as to what angle 
we might pursue.  The aim is an appropriate solution to allow for _some_ 
situations where binaries can be installed without cluttering the portage 
tree with -bin directories.   Currently on the table for review is adding 
a prebuilt USE flag.  Some are for it, some are against it.  I'm sure 
you'll hear about it when/if anything gets decided.

[...]

My general stance is that if someone wants a full binary OS release, they 
should pursue something like Debian, Slackware, et al.  That's their core 
competency... ours is building from source.  There's no right or wrong 
either way, it just depends on what you're after.

Cheers,
Dylan Carlson

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