Re: A GNU Distribution

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   > I am not sure what benefit it would bring to the user.

   It would be different. It would be highly portable. I personally
   also like the idea that, when someone wants a program, they're
   automatically given the "complete and corresponding source code" at
   the time.

It wouldn't be more or less portable than binaries, the source has to
be compiled at some point.

   > Resolving library dependencies is always cumbersome, and we
   > should aim so that anyone can install GNU.

   It needn't be hard. Indeed, I'm sure that the installer/package
   manager/whatever could be made to handle dependencies. Source-based
   doesn't *have* to mean manually compiling everything yourself.

But it does imply that you have the CPU and RAM to finish the
compilation, not everyone is on a super fast computer.  So you'd need
to provide binaries anyway, making the idea of a `source based'
operating system moot.  What would be useful is to make it easier to
re-compile what you have installed, much like BSD's have done.