| 1 | <sect1 id="pre-whoread">
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| 2 | <title>Who would want to read this book</title>
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| 3 | <?dbhtml filename="whoread.html" dir="preface"?>
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| 4 |
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| 5 | <para>There are a lot of reasons why somebody would want to read this
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| 6 | book in order to install an LFS system. The question most people raise
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| 7 | is "why go through all the hassle of manually installing a Linux system
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| 8 | from scratch when you can just download an existing distribution?". That is
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| 9 | a valid question which I hope to answer for you.</para>
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| 10 |
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| 11 | <para>The most important reason for LFS's existence is teaching people
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| 12 | how a Linux system works internally. Building an LFS system teaches you
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| 13 | about all that makes Linux tick, how things work together, and depend on
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| 14 | each other. And most importantly, how to customize it to your own taste
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| 15 | and needs.</para>
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| 16 |
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| 17 | <para>One of the key benefits of LFS is that you are in control of
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| 18 | your system without having to rely on somebody else's Linux
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| 19 | implementation. You are in the driver's seat now and are
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| 20 | able to dictate every single thing such as the directory layout and boot
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| 21 | script setup. You will also know exactly where, why and how programs
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| 22 | are installed.</para>
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| 23 |
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| 24 | <para>Another benefit of LFS is that you can create a very compact Linux
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| 25 | system. When you install a regular distribution, you end
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| 26 | up installing a lot of programs you probably would never use.
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| 27 | They're just sitting there taking up (precious) disk space. It's not
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| 28 | hard to get an LFS system installed under 100 MB. Does that still sound
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| 29 | like a lot? A few of us have been working on creating a very small
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| 30 | embedded LFS system. We installed a system that was just enough to run
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| 31 | the Apache web server; total disk space usage was approximately 8 MB.
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| 32 | With further stripping, that can be brought down to 5 MB or less. Try
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| 33 | that with a regular distribution.</para>
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| 34 |
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| 35 | <para>If we were to compare a Linux distribution with a hamburger you
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| 36 | buy at a supermarket or fast-food restaurant, you would end up eating it
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| 37 | without knowing precisely what it is you are eating, whereas LFS gives
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| 38 | you the ingredients to make a hamburger. This allows you to carefully
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| 39 | inspect it, remove unwanted ingredients, and at the same time allow you
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| 40 | to add ingredients to enhance the flavour of your hamburger. When you are
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| 41 | satisfied with the ingredients, you go on to the next part of putting it
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| 42 | together. You now have the chance to make it just the way you like it:
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| 43 | broil it, bake it, deep-fry it, barbeque it, or eat it raw.</para>
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| 44 |
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| 45 | <para>Another analogy that we can use is that of comparing LFS with a
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| 46 | finished house. LFS will give you the skeleton of a house, but it's up
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| 47 | to you to install plumbing, electrical outlets, kitchen, bathtub,
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| 48 | wallpaper, etc.</para>
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| 49 |
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| 50 | <para>Another advantage of a custom built Linux system is added security.
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| 51 | You will compile the entire system from source, thus allowing you to audit
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| 52 | everything, if you wish to do so, and apply all the security patches you
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| 53 | want or need to apply. You don't have to wait for somebody else to
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| 54 | provide a new binary package that fixes a security hole. Besides, you
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| 55 | have no guarantee that the new package actually fixes the problem
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| 56 | (adequately). You never truly know whether a security hole is fixed or
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| 57 | not unless you do it yourself.</para>
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| 58 |
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| 59 | </sect1>
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| 60 |
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