-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [general] about Linux From Scratch (LFS)
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 11:09:36 +0200
From: Costas Magos <kmag [ at ] lab [ dot ] epmhs [ dot ] gr>
Organization: ISLab
To: general [ at ] lab [ dot ] epmhs [ dot ] gr
What is Linux From Scratch?
Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a project that provides you with the steps
necessary to build your own custom Linux system.
..
Why would I want an LFS system?
There are a lot of reasons why somebody would want to install an LFS
system. The question most people raise is "why go through all the hassle
of manually installing a Linux system from scratch when you can just
download an existing distribution?". That is a valid question which I
hope to answer for you.
The most important reason for LFS's existence is teaching people how a
Linux system works internally. Building an LFS system teaches you about
all that makes Linux tick, how things work together, and depend on each
other. And most importantly, how to customize it to your own taste and
needs.
One of the key benefits of LFS is that you are in control over your
system without having to rely on somebody else's Linux implementation.
You are in the driver's seat now and are able to dictate every single
thing such as the directory layout and boot script setup. You will also
know exactly where, why and how programs are installed.
Another benefit of LFS is that you can create a very compact Linux
system. When you install a regular distribution, you end up installing a
lot of programs you probably would never use. They're just sitting there
taking up (precious) disk space. It's not hard to get an LFS system
installed under 100 MB. Does that still sound like a lot? A few of us
have been working on creating a very small embedded LFS system. We
installed a system that was just enough to run the Apache web server;
total disk space usage was aproximately 8 MB. With further stripping,
that can be brought down to 5 MB or less. Try that with a regular
distribution.
..
Another advantage of a custom built Linux system is added security . You
will compile the entire system from source, thus allowing you to audit
everything, if you wish to do so, and apply all the security patches you
want or need to apply. You don't have to wait for somebody else to
provide a new binary package that fixes a security hole. Besides, you
have no guarantee that the new package actually fixes the problem
(adequately). You never truly know whether a security hole is fixed or
not unless you do it yourself.
http://www.nl.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/intro.shtml