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[katherine]

Having tried many distros for 15 years, I still find Linux quit inconvenient. Understandably the kernel keeps evolving and libraries are not standardized etc but what probably gave some cohesion to the common user experience was Ubuntu and its many LTS spinoffs. After reading the post about Porteus' server problems and visiting the Custom-Build website, I begin to think whether there is a better way to reduce download-build access.

Being a dedicated MS-Win user, I've wondered why Porteus couldn't follow the example set by Xandros' Business Edition where all wanted software are bundled in a separate ISO collection in a Dual-set. The user chooses from the collection without having to bother the server. Going back constantly to the Build website is so irritating every time I need a hardware or software differentiation.

Repository-updating on the other hand assumes that this whole world is broadband-ready - to whack your poor servers that is. I notice that even Slitaz3 has bundled packages for download but in .tar which most folks don't want to know. Ubuntu/Debian's procedure for backing up download apps from whatever folder in Home for further installs is also cheesy - not in the same league as Xandros or MS.

So how about ' Build-Your-Apt-Bundles ' or something similar ?

[brokenman]

Thanks for your input. It is always refreshing to get ideas from a dedicated windows (or any other OS) user.

On the build page there is a note about getting the individual packages from the server. No need to rebuild every time.

http://dl.porteus.org/x86_64/current/

Providing software bundles is a nice way however you run the risk of incompatible libraries if you bundle everything (software and dependencies) into one bundle. Also many dependencies get doubled up and are rather large as in the case of java or qt.