[STATSGRASS] R, gras, qgis etc in gentoo?

[Daniel McInerney]

Hi Agus,

> Sorry if this is too off-topic for this list.

You might get more feedback about specifics
of software on various linux distributions
from the Freegis mailing list [1], as this
list deals specifically with issues relating to
GRASS-GIS interfaces to stats software, in particular R.

> I'm thinking on a new machine
> and wonder if gentoo linux would make
> difference for running R, grass, qgis...
> Anyone out there has any experience with or has
> information on this distribution
> in which all packages have to be compiled?

To briefly answer your query, I would make the following observations:

If your work entails monitoring system performance and how OS tuning 
will influence processing speeds you might find that you have more 
control over a system that is entirely installed from source, such as 
Gentoo. However, if the objective is to do statistical analysis of 
spatial data using FOSS, a distribution shouldn't make any difference - 
you should expect (& hope) to reproduce the same results on all 
operating systems.

My own personal experience is with Debian. All of the packages that
you identify are available through APT and many more. You can also 
install all of them from source if required. I'm not advocating one 
distribution over the other, the choice is down to your needs, 
preference and experience.

I hope that this is of use to you in deciding on your distribution.

Best regards,

Daniel.


[1] http://news.gmane.org/group/gmane.comp.gis.freegis


-----------
Daniel McInerney
School of Biology & Env. Science,
University College Dublin,
Belfield, Dublin 4.
Ireland

daniel.mcinerney @ ucd.ie
++ 353 1 716 7787 / 2698