[Scribus] Appropriate platform for compiling scribus

[Aakin N. Patel]

: I want to/have to:
: 
: - build ghostscript 8.5x
: 
: - build scribus 1.2.2cvs and 1.3cvs
: 
: - build lprof
: 
: - build inkscape 0.41
: 
: - build GIMP 2.2.6
: 
: Can all this be achieved with SuSE 9.3 without downloading too much 
: stuff? It's a serious problem, because after a major hardware upgrade, I 
: had to remove my ISDN-card. To access the internet, I have to boot W2k 
: as the only device left is the one provided by the phone company. It's 
: Windoze and OS/X only, hardly any chance of ever getting drivers for 
: Linux, so you can imagine the pain of resolving Linux dependencies ...
: 
: Any reports would be welcome.

I have no experience with SuSE. However, I have plenty of experience
with various other distributions. And honestly, if you are intending 
to compile that much (and possibly more, not sure of your intentions
with regards to libraries) from source, I would recommend going with
a source-based distribution.

Source based distributions have one major issue - they take a bit of
time to get started. However, everything is compiled from source, it
is usually far more up to date than other distributions, and all the
software you install is very optimized for your hardware. 

There are two source based distributions that I have tried: Sorcerer
and Gentoo. I personally like Sorcerer better, but your tastes might
be different.

I know sorcerer has a package for scribus (it defaults to the stable
version, but is easy to change to 1.3.x). I'll assume Gentoo does as
well, since it is based off of debain, and I'd hope debian's package
list as well.

I run my personal server on Sorcerer. I'd definately recommend it if
you are interested in going a source-based distro route. It is a bit
of effort to initially get up and running, as it takes a good amount
of time to build all your apps the first time around (my desktop has
taken up to 2 days to build, depending on what I want on it), but it
is stunningly fast compared to a standard binary based install. And,
it is very easy to compile new software, either by hand or via a new
package that you create. (In sorcerer, atleast, all this involves is
a file that points to the source location, lists dependancies, and a
description, all in plain text. If non-standard build procedures are
involved, you can specify those, too).

-- 
                                                                     - Aakin