Ubuntu/Debian compiling etc

[Loïc Martin]

Peter Garrett a écrit :
> On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:15:08 +0200
> Loïc Martin <lomartin3 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>   
>> I've been used to distributions where you could specify the type of uses 
>> you would do of your install, and just choosing "development something" 
>> (sometimes split in two, adding the choice to do X development) would 
>> enable me to compile almost anything without having to care about 
>> installing manually extra stuff.
>>     
>
> Ubuntu does things "The Debian Way" ,  on the whole 
My experience with Debian is a bit blurred in the past (round 1996) but 
unless I mixed it in my memory with Slackware, I think I had the 
possibility to select some preselections of packages depending on the 
use (with or without X, with or without a developper environment). I 
almost always ended up (de)selecting packages individually, but if I 
knew I would have to do some compiling, a newbie like me could end up 
with a sane environment without having to learn which packages were 
necessary.

Maybe it's not like that in Debian any more, but that was quite handy. 
There's still time where a perfect newbie has to compile stuff, and I 
think that'll not change, even if Linux is has been ready for my desktop 
since long. Under all OS, users have sometimes been required an user to 
compile an application (or a part of it) by themselves, even with 
commercial software. It can even be seen as a proof of quality (i.e. if 
the support offered for your software company is good enough, they'll 
send you part of the code, instead of asking you to wait for the new 
version still six month ahead :).
> - which is why the
> apt/dpkg tools are the key to doing many things easily. "apt-get
> build-dep" is just one example, but there are quite a few useful tools and
> commands for building from source in the apt armory.
>
> I recommend the apt-howto , which is available as a package and at
>
> http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/index.en.html
>
>   

Thanks. I guess I'm back to some reading :)