LFS takes the opposite approach. You build a cross compilation toolchain, build out a full Linux file system, compile a massive number of packages… it’s almost two days of work before you even start thinking about a boot loader.

This tutorial gets straight to the heart of the matter. Get a system that boots asap and then add complexity as you discover the shortcomings.

This seems like a much better pedagogical approach for someone not sure how the kernel works or what initramfs is, etc…

i once sat down to go through this as a challenge, but started to get bored quickly. skipping ahead, i built bash, configured grub to init=/bin/bash, threw in coreutils, and was very thrilled to see my very own "distro" boot in under a second (not counting bios init ofcourse) on an ancient p3 box.

i think i disabled everything i could think of in the kernel (including filesystem support, which was quickly rectified) for a truly 'minimalist' experience.

it ofcourse didnt do much but it was very responsive.

LFS has been on my todo list for like a decade, I really need to plan a weekend and just do it