Mint possible to compile packages from source?

[scorp123]

Is this feature repoducible in MINT?

To a certain degree yes, but why oh why would you want that?? Given that we have those wonderful Debian package manager tools: apt, dpkg, Synaptic ...

The point of those tools is that you don't have to mess around compiling your stuff yourself. If you had used Gentoo long enough and e.g. tried to compile more complex packages such as KDE, GNOME or OpenOffice you'd know what I mean: The computer produces nothing but hot air for 2+ days as it is totally busy compiling ...

On Debian-like distros you click on the relevant packages e.g. kubuntu-desktop .... and voila, a few minutes later you have your KDE.

This BS about having "optimised binaries" is just that: BS. Even if you apply really weird levels of optimisations to your compiler setup in Gentoo the differences and speed improvements are next to non-measurable and irrelevant for 99% of the Linux users out there.

The only aspect where Gentoo really shines is the fact that you can create an extremely super-slim and tuned-as-hell system, e.g. throw away all the surplus stuff you don't need (qt, gtk, alsa, etc.), tune your compiler to the max ... then apply some really scary kernel patches ("scary" in the sense: Totally bleeding edge, untested + experimental!) and maybe you will have one hell of a fast server ... which could be useful under certain special circumstances ...

But if you're after something like that then you should stay on Gentoo anyway and not use a distro like Mint.

To use an analogy: You're the kit car racer and car tuner who swapped his "construct-this-yourself" kit car (= Gentoo) for a super-duper comfortable "already-has-everything-you-might-ever-want" Toyota family van (= Mint): There is very little if not nothing to be tuned, newer Toyota cars come "as is" out of the factory with all the gadgets already installed, "ready to enjoy", "ready to drive" .... to all eternity if needs to be: If you treat your Toyota well it will never ever break down (just like Linux !!).

So what you're asking is this: Can I use my super-duper comfortable "stuffed-with-gadgets", "ready to enjoy", "ready to drive" Toyota family van to compete in dragster race, e.g. tune it to 900 hp and remove that family-friendly Diesel engine and replace it with a F-16 jet engine I bought from the US Air Force .... ?

Sure, you can ....

But people who do such stuff don't use Toyota family vans as basis for such constructions, wouldn't you agree?

To get back to Linux: Yes, sure, even on Mint (= that super-duper comfortable Toyota family van with all the gadgets preinstalled) you can compile everything if you want to .... It's just that if you really wanted to do that all the time then you probably should have stayed on Gentoo.

[Boo]

there are no real performance gains from building your own kernel (even if it is 64bit)...

Unless you can build the kernel and all apps in 64bit.
but thats getting back to gentoo world.

[Boo]

the XFCE beta will be out soon, if not already (ie today).
check the XFCE forum.

[Boo]

check this out.

http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopi ... 0492#20492

some pics and all.

[Boo]

No I'll get husse to put a special retard flag on it.
and make it a sticky.

[scorp123]

specifying your compiler options can have a very dramatic effect on execution time

"Can": yes. But "must have" or "definitely will have" ...? No.

Like I wrote above: Under certain circumstances it can absolutely make sense to use Gentoo, tune it to the max, then apply real-time patches to the Kernel, throw out anything that might cause unnecessary lags in the system ... We once did such an installation for some research institute and they badly needed such a system. All I know is that they stuffed it with RS-232 cards and some other ports; I don't even know what standard that was. Apparently they needed this thing to measure stuff in some experiments they did. No idea. But if you are going to something like that then Gentoo makes perfect sense.

But on the desktop? I just don't see the sense behind desktop users spending days and days and days compiling stuff when instead they could have all the stuff they could ever want pre-compiled, packaged and easily installed with the luxury a Debian-like system offers.

Don't get me wrong ... Gentoo is cool and it absolutely has its purposes, and compiling your own stuff may be necessary from time to time, but as I wrote above: The sense behind Debian-like systems and all those nifty package tools is that you shouldn't have to deal with this compiling stuff business.

[scorp123]

... but when they do want that, I just think it would be nice to provide that level of support for that audience.

The problem is that most likely people here --including myself-- lack the time and maybe even the motivation to offer this kind of very advanced support to the "average joe user" here.

Also it's sort of a paradox: "Newbie" users shouldn't bother with this --they will get better and safer results with the package tools-- and advanced users shouldn't have to ask this --if you compile your own stuff you should already know plenty of things!-- ...

For these things and this kind of support it probably would be better to talk directly to the devs of the project you want to compile (GNOME devs, kernel devs, KDE devs, Ubuntu packagers, Canonical employees, etc. ....) in their respective IRC channel (e.g. #kde, #gnome, #ubuntu, etc.) or mailing list.