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I used Linux from Scratch as my regular operating system during two years. It was very fun to know that I built everything that I was using. The system was also good because only softwares that I really need were installed. But one sad day, I needed to format the hard drive. I wouldn't have the patience to build everything from scratch again. So, I installed Ubuntu. :-(

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If I wanted to learn how to do it myself but still let it be repeatable, would it be a good idea to write a script or scripts that does it instead of running all the commands by hand?

i am really curious suppose i have machine X everything configured and i have a new machine Y same architecture(let 64bit) can i port from one two another.

I am wondering if it would be as easy as doing a dd from the old disk to an external an then to an extended partition in the new machine HD...

You could if the new machine was very similar to the old one. In practice, the new hardware is better in some ways, so just copying everything will either not work at all or only work sub-optimally.

OTOH, your personal application configuration files (editor, window manager, etc.) can nearly always be copied as-is without causing any problems. Some people have been copying the same .emacs from machine to machine for years, if not decades, upgrading Emacs all the while.

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