{"slug": "linux-from-scratch", "name": "Linux From Scratch", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 11, "warners": 2, "score": 3.962, "rising": 2.02, "first": "2025-11-30", "latest": "2026-09-16", "why": "I always recommend going through this for those that want a deeper understanding of linux, the kernel, and all its accoutrements.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 7, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [1, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I always recommend going through this for those that want a deeper understanding of linux, the kernel, and all its accoutrements.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "linuxfromscratch.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.linuxfromscratch.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Linux From Scratch"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795754928, "item_id": 49734683, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49734683", "by": "j117noai", "date": "2026-09-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Decided to give it a shot as a learning journey. So far it's been fun, I learned about a bunch of stuff", "excerpt": "First time hearing about LFS. Decided to give it a shot as a learning journey. So far it's been fun, I learned about a bunch of stuff, like what ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 does and why you should not delete it on your host machine when trying to create the cross-toolchain", "context": "", "use_case": "learning how Linux is built", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 795347616, "item_id": 49709226, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49709226", "by": "wazdra", "date": "2026-09-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I feel that I\u2019ve learned a lot by following those recipes", "excerpt": "> It was like following a baking recipe. I know I need to add eggs and sugar in the ratio it says but I\u2019d be damned if I could tell you why that specific ratio works. I know a french cookbook[0] which contains not only recipes for dishes, but also for some of the intermediary ingredients, like stocks, that can now be bought at the supermarket. I feel that I\u2019ve learned a lot by following those recipes, be it simply in", "context": "", "use_case": "learning how Linux builds", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 795335616, "item_id": 49708476, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49708476", "by": "sixtyj", "date": "2026-09-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "And then continue with reading LFS.", "excerpt": "LFS is known but it is really more a cookbook than explanatory principles. Principles can be studied from \u201cOperating Systems: Three Easy Pieces\u201c book - https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/ Rob Love wrote the book \u201cLinux Kernel Development\u201d. https://rlove.org/ And then continue with reading LFS.", "context": "", "use_case": "learning Linux internals", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 747386081, "item_id": 46711630, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711630", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "LFS/BLFS has better documentation", "excerpt": "I used versioned AppDirs for that, e. g. /Programs/Python/3.13/. If I don't need it anymore, the directory is removed and a script runs. Similar to GoboLinux. I do however had not use GoboLinux right now; GoboLinux unfortunately lacks documentation, LFS/BLFS has better documentation. Finding information these days is hard - google search has become sooooo bad ...", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 747375376, "item_id": 46710961, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46710961", "by": "pizlonator", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is such an awesome project.", "excerpt": "This is such an awesome project. I had a lot of fun doing LFS plus a bit of BLFS and then I adapted it to my memory safe linux project https://fil-c.org/pizlix", "context": "", "use_case": "Building a custom Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 747382033, "item_id": 46711377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711377", "by": "kanbankaren", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "don't waste you time building from scratch. There is very little utility", "excerpt": "As someone who has been using Linux as a daily driver for 25+ years and also used linuxfromscratch.org for building some packages, I would say, don't waste you time building from scratch. There is very little utility unless you are maintaining some arcane system professionally. Stick to RPM based systems as dnf supports transactions. The ability to look at history of package installation and rollback to a known state", "context": "Linux daily driver for 25+ years", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 747379456, "item_id": 46711216, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711216", "by": "BeetleB", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Slackware and LFS are the Haskells of the Linux distribution world.", "excerpt": "From \"20 Years of Gentoo\" (https://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2023/May/20-years-of-gentoo/): \"Even more common: \u201cOh, I\u2019m not going to use Gentoo. I want to go all the way and use LFS!\u201d They never heed my warnings about it. Every one of them either quits in the middle of the install, or soon after, and swears off source based distributions for life. Slackware and LFS are the Haskells of the Linux distribution world. People ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["learning how linux is built", "learning how linux builds", "learning linux internals", "package management and bootstrapping experiments", "building a linux system by hand", "building a custom linux"], "compared": [{"slug": "debian", "name": "Debian", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "linux", "name": "Linux", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "systemd", "name": "systemd", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46709727", "title": "Linux from Scratch", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49707627", "title": "Linux from Scratch", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46858829", "title": "Linux from Scratch Ends SysVinit Support", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46100892", "title": "A Love Letter to FreeBSD", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 3, "warn": 2}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 3}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 795754928, "item_id": 49734683, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49734683", "by": "j117noai", "date": "2026-09-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Decided to give it a shot as a learning journey. So far it's been fun, I learned about a bunch of stuff", "excerpt": "First time hearing about LFS. Decided to give it a shot as a learning journey. So far it's been fun, I learned about a bunch of stuff, like what ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 does and why you should not delete it on your host machine when trying to create the cross-toolchain", "context": "", "use_case": "learning how Linux is built", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 795347616, "item_id": 49709226, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49709226", "by": "wazdra", "date": "2026-09-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I feel that I\u2019ve learned a lot by following those recipes", "excerpt": "> It was like following a baking recipe. I know I need to add eggs and sugar in the ratio it says but I\u2019d be damned if I could tell you why that specific ratio works. I know a french cookbook[0] which contains not only recipes for dishes, but also for some of the intermediary ingredients, like stocks, that can now be bought at the supermarket. I feel that I\u2019ve learned a lot by following those recipes, be it simply in", "context": "", "use_case": "learning how Linux builds", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 795335616, "item_id": 49708476, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49708476", "by": "sixtyj", "date": "2026-09-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "And then continue with reading LFS.", "excerpt": "LFS is known but it is really more a cookbook than explanatory principles. Principles can be studied from \u201cOperating Systems: Three Easy Pieces\u201c book - https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/ Rob Love wrote the book \u201cLinux Kernel Development\u201d. https://rlove.org/ And then continue with reading LFS.", "context": "", "use_case": "learning Linux internals", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 795333456, "item_id": 49708341, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49708341", "by": "haunter", "date": "2026-09-15", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The last release of the no longer maintained sysvinit version is here", "excerpt": "The last release of the no longer maintained sysvinit version is here (the default is systemd now) https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/downloads/12.4/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 749759376, "item_id": 46859961, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46859961", "by": "mid-kid", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use it a lot for package management/bootstrapping/cross compilation experiments", "excerpt": "I was considering forking the base book and maintaining it, as I have kept an eye and occassionally built the project over the years (I use it a lot for package management/bootstrapping/cross compilation experiments), but it appears there already is one: https://lists.linuxfromscratch.org/sympa/arc/lfs-dev/2026-02/msg00001.html I believe maintaining the base book is the most important part, BLFS has some really good ", "context": "", "use_case": "package management and bootstrapping experiments", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch Ends SysVinit Support"}, {"id": 749754000, "item_id": 46859625, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46859625", "by": "antonyh", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "As for Linux from Scratch - This is something that's been on my radar", "excerpt": "All I want is init scripts and X11, but the horizons are shrinking. I've already compromised with systemd, and I don't like it. I see BSD in my future, or at least a linux distro from the list here https://nosystemd.org/ - probably Gentoo. Nothing to stop me, absolutely nothing at all. I just need a few days free to backup/wipe/reinstall/reconfigure/restore_data and I'll be good. Better make that a few weeks. Maybe o", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch Ends SysVinit Support"}, {"id": 747387712, "item_id": 46711732, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711732", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It definitely is. See the bootscripts", "excerpt": "> Linux From Scratch was never really about running the system anyway It definitely is. See the bootscripts: https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/development/chapter09/bootscripts.html Admittedly the main problems I had was with configuring the linux kernel. I have no good solution to make this simpler. That config file is sooooooooooo huge ... no clue how to handle this. There is no way I have enough time to si", "context": "", "use_case": "Building a Linux system by hand", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 747386081, "item_id": 46711630, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711630", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "LFS/BLFS has better documentation", "excerpt": "I used versioned AppDirs for that, e. g. /Programs/Python/3.13/. If I don't need it anymore, the directory is removed and a script runs. Similar to GoboLinux. I do however had not use GoboLinux right now; GoboLinux unfortunately lacks documentation, LFS/BLFS has better documentation. Finding information these days is hard - google search has become sooooo bad ...", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 747382033, "item_id": 46711377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711377", "by": "kanbankaren", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "don't waste you time building from scratch. There is very little utility", "excerpt": "As someone who has been using Linux as a daily driver for 25+ years and also used linuxfromscratch.org for building some packages, I would say, don't waste you time building from scratch. There is very little utility unless you are maintaining some arcane system professionally. Stick to RPM based systems as dnf supports transactions. The ability to look at history of package installation and rollback to a known state", "context": "Linux daily driver for 25+ years", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 747379456, "item_id": 46711216, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711216", "by": "BeetleB", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Slackware and LFS are the Haskells of the Linux distribution world.", "excerpt": "From \"20 Years of Gentoo\" (https://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2023/May/20-years-of-gentoo/): \"Even more common: \u201cOh, I\u2019m not going to use Gentoo. I want to go all the way and use LFS!\u201d They never heed my warnings about it. Every one of them either quits in the middle of the install, or soon after, and swears off source based distributions for life. Slackware and LFS are the Haskells of the Linux distribution world. People ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 747375376, "item_id": 46710961, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46710961", "by": "pizlonator", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is such an awesome project.", "excerpt": "This is such an awesome project. I had a lot of fun doing LFS plus a bit of BLFS and then I adapted it to my memory safe linux project https://fil-c.org/pizlix", "context": "", "use_case": "Building a custom Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 747372112, "item_id": 46710757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46710757", "by": "theideaofcoffee", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I always recommend going through this for those that want a deeper understanding of linux, the kernel, and all its accoutrements.", "excerpt": "So many good memories I had running through this way back when and it gave such a good and deep look into how a fully functioning system worked. It removed a lot of the mystery of this distro vs that distro and how all the pieces fit together. I still use some of the knowledge I gained from this in my day-to-day work, some of which is sorely lacking by others doing seemingly the same job as me. I used the same laptop", "context": "", "use_case": "learning how Linux works", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux from Scratch"}, {"id": 737626226, "item_id": 46101639, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46101639", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2025-11-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "LFS/BLFS is active", "excerpt": "> Culture matters too. One reason I stepped away from Linux was the noise, the debates that drowned out the joy of building. No clue what he is babbling about. LFS/BLFS is active. FreeBSD doesn't have that. I am sorry but Linux is the better tinker-toy. I understand this upsets the BSD folks, but it is simply how it is. Granted, systemd and the corporatification took a huge toll into the Linux ecosystem but even now ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to FreeBSD"}]}