[Surreal Killa]

I'm basically wondering which is the best Linux distro for compiling applications from source.

[ozar]

You can do it with any distro, but Gentoo might be the most popular one that does it by default. The best would be purely a matter of opinion.

[Surreal Killa]

By best I mean one that generally works. I've tried compiling on various distros and some things work on some, others don't, and vice versa.

[MikeTbob]

Originally Posted by Surreal Killa

By best I mean one that generally works. I've tried compiling on various distros and some things work on some, others don't, and vice versa.

That's mostly just a matter of having the correct packages installed, Whatever they may be. All Linux distro's will compile source code as long as you have the Dependencies met.

[Dapper Dan]

Far less known than Gentoo, but an excellent distro to compile from source is CRUX.

[netstrider]

If you're really into compiling and understanding the nature of Linux and why certain things compile on certain distributions you might want to try LinuxFromScratch (LFS).

Basically, they take you step-by-step through compiling your own Linux distribution package-by-package. That way you will learn quite a lot, understand the dependancy factor and understand what's actually being utilised when compiling etc.

Best of all is, it's not really that hard because you just follow the steps. Gentoo is equally adequate though I suppose.

Whatever floats your boat

[dxqcanada]

Why are you looking for a Linux Distribution that is best at compiling applications from source ?