[dev] sta.li - a few questions about it

Tried reading the web site for information on sta.li and then did a search in the mailing list for more information. I've been looking for the right Open Source operating system to switch to from Windows and still have not found one that fits my needs. Biggest issue is binary compatibility. I really dislike the way you need to have all programs rebuilt every time glibc is updated. From what I read about sta.li, it sounds like it may be a workable solution to the binary compatibility issue.

First question, has anyone considered using OpenWatcom ( http://www.openwatcom.org/index.php/Main_Page ) as the main compiler for sta.li? I read the progress on the list about bionic (which also sounded like a good option). Am wondering if OpenWatcom would be an easier route. I've used Watcom on Windows for years, even before it went Open Source, and I know at one point the magazines were reporting it made the mostly highly optimized binaries of any of the commercial compilers available for Windows. There is a Linux port that's currently in the works. Don't know the current status, but I do know that there's active work on it and you can download a copy for Linux to test out. OpenWatcom supplies its own run time library, so that should provide a way to avoid glibc.

Second question, are there any pointers to documentation to install and use sta.li on a system? I just went through attempting to install half a dozen Linux distributions on my desktop including Slackware, Centos and OpenSuse and only found one distribution I could successfully get to run so far (Crunchbang). I'm not feeling very lucky at getting Linux systems going on my main computer, especially without some good documentation or help. Would be willing to help document if I can get access to information how to install and get up and running.

If sta.li gets to the point where someone like me could install it and get it working on a system and it has a useable compiler, I would be more than happy to start trying to get some Open Source programs building on it. I'm pretty good at porting software. I've also been working on some ideas for building, installing and managing programs on and off for about a year now. I really like the idea I noticed mentioned on the list of using tarballs. I personally prefer using what tools are already available to programmers and not trying to change how programs were designed to build unless necessary. On the other hand, as a programmer, I also like being able to get in and customize a program so it suits my particular needs (sort of like when users of dwm all customize it to their particular needs).

I'd love to just find a stable, backward compatible Open Source system so I can concentrate on what I like most, getting interesting and useful programs to build and work on the system. Good luck with the sta.li project and if there's something I can do to help, let me know.

Sincerely,
Laura
http://www.distasis.com/cpp/dlin.htm
Received on Tue Aug 10 2010 - 01:10:52 CEST