[Ardour-Users] [OT] Degrees of DIY (was:Re: OSX vs Linux)

[Thomas Vecchione]

But you need to take this one step farther to the professional race car
drivers that are driving a car that is quite capable of being VERY fast, but
don't have to mount the engine in it themselves, change their own tires at
every pit stop, etc.

If you are going to use this analogy, the above is where we as a community,
and distributions, should be able to deliver to a user that wants to step up
to it IMO.

        Seablade

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 9:47 AM, Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu> wrote:

> On Sunday 23 August 2009 02:32:38 pm Thomas Vecchione wrote:
> > On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 6:45 AM, Rob Quin <robquin at uklinux.net> wrote:
> > > Linux is a DIY operating system.
>
> > For the record, I strongly disagree with the concept that any
> distribution
> > of Linux needs to be a DIY system.  That defeats one of the main purposes
> > of distributions, otherwise we would all run LFS.
>
> There are degrees and shades of DIY.
>
> To use the analogy of 'hotrodding' cars, there are degrees of hotrodding
> that
> can be done, from a simple engine swap in an otherwise stock vehicle to a
> custom kit engine with Edelbrock intake, dual Holley double pumper four
> barrels (or a six pack of Weber single barrels with a Roots blower on top),
> specialized chips for EFI controls, and the like.
>
> And there are different 'scenes' of hotrodding.  One can hotrod for speed;
> 4
> wheel drive enthusiasts might hotrod for rock crawling (where you need
> ultralow gear ratios, using cascaded modified transfer cases, and no sway
> bars
> for maximum suspension travel).  Things can be as simple as bolt on kits,
> or
> as complex as shortening a pair of Dana 44 axles for an old Willys narrow
> track CJ and adding Arb airlockers front and rear.  Cantilever rear
> suspensions to work around the steamroller tires of a streetrod drag racer
> are
> typically pretty custom things, too.
>
> LFS is like taking bare tubular steel, sheet metals, sandcasting equipment,
> and a fully equipped machine shop and rolling your own vehicle from
> complete
> raw materials (if one really wants to go full scratch then one needs one's
> own
> smelter and foundry, though...... and a mine helps, too).  But there is a
> distinct satisfaction in knowing you did it yourself.
>
> AVLinux, to use a less 'from scratch' distribution, is more like taking,
> oh, a
> '69 Chevy Nova and dropping a 454 Chevy big block overbored eighty
> thousandths, sporting 11:1 pistons, with a blower and eight Webers with a
> custom hood and scoop, beefed up T56 six speed transmission, 4.11:1 geared
> limited-slip rear end, lots of rubber on the rear, and wheelie bars for
> streetrodding.  These would be all bolt-on kit mods with little to no true
> custom fabrication (except the sheet metal work on the hood); and AVLinux
> is,
> after all, based on 'bolt-on' mods to Debian Testing with a little bit of
> sheet metal cutting and welding for good RT performance and good
> Ardour/JACK
> integration.  And even though such a setup isn't as 'from scratch' there is
> still a distinct builder's satisfaction (one of the keys of a good and
> lasting
> education experience, incidentally).
>
> And I will contend that Linux, in the collective sense of the set of all
> distributions, is currently an Enthusiast's OS. And I'll further contend
> that
> that is OK. I personally WANT something with which I have to tinker to get
> it
> 'Right.'  But that's just me; keeps my brain exercised.  I'm not sure I'd
> want
> to roll my own, though, at this time.  I get my craving to tinker filled
> without going to that extreme, at this time at least.
>
> Degrees and shades of DIY, that is the point.
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