| 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 many reasons why somebody would want to read this book. The
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| 6 | principle reason being to install an LFS system. A question many people raise
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| 7 | is "Why go through all the hassle of manually building a Linux system
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| 8 | from scratch when you can just download and install an existing one?". That
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| 9 | is a good question.</para>
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| 10 |
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| 11 | <para>One important reason for LFS' existence is to help people
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| 12 | learn how a Linux system works from the inside out. Building an LFS system
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| 13 | helps demonstrate what makes Linux tick, and how things work together and
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| 14 | depend on each other. And perhaps most importantly, how to customize it to
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| 15 | your own tastes and needs.</para>
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| 16 |
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| 17 | <para>A key benefit of LFS is that you have more control of your system
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| 18 | without relying on someone else's Linux implementation. With LFS, you are
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| 19 | in the driver's seat and dictate every aspect of your system, such as the
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| 20 | directory layout and boot script setup. You also dictate where, why and how
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| 21 | programs are installed.</para>
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| 22 |
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| 23 | <para>Another benefit of LFS is the ability to create a very compact Linux
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| 24 | system. When installing a regular distribution, you end up with several
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| 25 | programs which you are likely to never use. They're just sitting there wasting
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| 26 | (precious) disk space. It isn't difficult to build an LFS system less than
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| 27 | 100 MB. Does that still sound like a lot? A few of us have been working on
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| 28 | creating a very small embedded LFS system. We successfully built a system
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| 29 | that was just enough to run the Apache web server with approximately 8MB
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| 30 | of disk space used. Further stripping could bring that down to 5 MB or
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| 31 | less. Try that with a regular distribution.</para>
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| 32 |
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| 33 | <para>We could compare distributed Linux to a hamburger you buy at a
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| 34 | fast-food restaurant, you have no idea what you are eating. LFS on the
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| 35 | other hand, doesn't give you a hamburger, but the recipe to make a hamburger.
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| 36 | This allows you to review it, to omit unwanted ingredients, and to
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| 37 | add your own ingredients which enhance the flavor of your burger. When you
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| 38 | are satisfied with the recipe, you go on to preparing it. You make it just
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| 39 | the way you like it: broil it, bake it, deep-fry it, barbeque it, or eat it
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| 40 | tar-tar (raw).</para>
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| 41 |
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| 42 | <para>Another analogy that we can use is that of comparing LFS with a
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| 43 | finished house. LFS will give you the skeletal plan of a house, but it's up
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| 44 | to you to build it. You have the freedom to adjust your plans as you
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| 45 | go.</para>
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| 46 |
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| 47 | <para>Another advantage of a custom built Linux system is security.
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| 48 | By compiling the entire system from source code, you are empowered to audit
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| 49 | everything and apply all the security patches you feel are needed. You don't
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| 50 | have to wait for somebody else to compile binary packages that fix a security
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| 51 | hole. Unless you examine the patch and build it yourself you have no
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| 52 | guarantee that the new package was built correctly and actually fixes the
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| 53 | problem (adequately). You never truly know whether a security hole is fixed
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| 54 | or not unless you do it yourself.</para>
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| 55 |
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| 56 | </sect1>
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| 57 |
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