Hi guys

I'm currently running FC6 with a custom 2.6.18.1 kernel (yeah, -OLD-, I know...)

I prefer to mostly compile packages and applications myself, instead of yumming or using RPMs.

Is it worth it to upgrade to FC10? I don't want to be trapped in a scenario where I become totally RPM dependant and / or internet connection dependant, i. e. the distro must be ... erm.... okay, very vague here... "aligned" to allow the user to compile applications, new kernels, etc. himself. I've read too many posts of guys yum-updating and then breaking their distro or some vital functions, or updating / adding a yum package and something stops working for no reason (i. e. too much like Windows!)

Ubuntu seems to be totally "packaged", Debian is lost in .deb, etc... I genned up on Slackware, but that seems a bit TOO manual... if you catch my drift. I do not want a "Linuxised Windows" type distro as Ubuntu and some others seem to be becoming - everything is a "package" to be yummed in, it looks like Windows, etc...

More specifically, I want to compile and run inkscape, which some gurus told me is impossible to do on FC6 due to its GTK setup - which distro do you use for Inkscape?

Basically I want FC6, but with a new KDE version and a GTK library set that will allow me to compile inkscape.

Any comments?

Slackware too manual ? Maybe try a Slackware derivative then, like Vector, or Zenwalk. I know I hated the dependency management of FC and Ubuntu and other such distros, they often did break everything, and it was hard to install your own packages from source. Slackware or derivatives would probably be the best options.

Slackware might seem too manual if you've never actually tried it. Give it a go, it doesn't bite.

I wonder why use an rpm based distro if you want to compile everything yourself.

It seems more natural to me to use a source based distro like Gentoo, where you don't have to reinstall to get a new release. Gentoo has no versions. You just emerge --sync and emerge -auDvN to recompile the latest. If ABI breaks due to an update, you recompile the offending packages using revdep-rebuild. It really can't get any simpler while retaining all the power of having a source based distro.

I don't think that any major change is worth the pain in a binary distro, because you have to rebuild 90% of your system from scratch to update any core dependency. It just comes down to how deep do the dependency problems or inkscape (or whatever) reaches. If for inkscape you need newer gtk, and for gtk a newer toolchain. It makes more sense to reinstall. Gentoo not only takes care of this problem, but also lets you continue compiling from source as you like, without having to bother about dependencies (for that, just set USE flags and forget about it).

I'm a very satisfied Slackware user with Gtk and Inkscape (and Gimp, Xara, mtPaint, Synfig, Blender and so on).

Recent stable and self compiled Inkscape from CVS work both just fine.

Slackware can run/compile inkscape. But it is possible that you'll have to do manual gtk upgrade.