Hello, ------------------- <snip>
: My point is to install just a plain SuSE distro with minimum critical : packages and install rest of needed packages manually from the : sources. : It takes a little bit time and efforts, but in the end I'm getting : rock solid OS without further head breaking and hair pulling. <snip>
Doesn't all this effort sort of defeat the purpose of a distribution? I mean, I thought that's exactly what we were buying with our hard-earned cash...
It does not defeat the whole purpose of the distribution 'cause most of important system core packages and components are original ones as well as SuSE installation and configuration tools. Basically you're getting your own customized Linux OS based on SuSE distro. The benefites are that when you're upgrading your box to the next SuSE version, all your custom compiled/installed packages stay in tact without changing a bit. You can update them independently of your base OS without waiting while SuSE developers compile SuSE rpms with all these bugs and misconfigurations fixed. Alex