Gentoo Talk

[ngms27]

A serious question.

I'm new to Linux and have just had a quick look at Gentoo.

Is Ubuntu better? If so why?

Thanks

JonnyT

[Dooglus]

Originally Posted by ngms27 A serious question. I'm new to Linux and have just had a quick look at Gentoo. Is Ubuntu better? If so why? Thanks JonnyT

Simple answer: yes, because it's easier.

Long boring rambling answer:

Back around 6 months ago I finally got sick of Mandriva Linux for various reasons and decided to try something different. I downloaded ISOs of both gentoo and ubuntu (hoary), having heard good things about both of them.

Figuring myself to be somewhat of a computer geek, I thought I'd try gentoo first, 'cos I had heard it was the more "interesting" of the two, from a geek point of view. Gentoo encourages you to compile everything for yourself, possibly resulting in a slightly faster performance, whereas ubuntu spoon feeds you with ready-compiled packages.

After struggling with the installation guidebook for a day I decided to give up and try ubuntu instead. Half an hour later I was up and running with my shiny new GNOME desktop, and haven't looked back since.

Maybe I'm missing out on great things with gentoo, but judging from the complexity of the install process and the rudeness I encountered when trying to get help installing it, I think I'll stay where I am for the time being.

[RagingFuryBlack]

Flat out, ubuntu is alot easier to install. As mentioned above, you're required to compile packages yourself which can be a hassle if you're an inexperienced linux user. Ubuntu provides precompiled packages, and a faster and more user-friendly install.

[aysiu]

Originally Posted by ngms27 I'm new to Linux and have just had a quick look at Gentoo. Is Ubuntu better? If so why?

Better at what? They're just different. Gentoo is slow and takes forever to compile and install software for. It also has many steps to it. However, Gentoo is probably more stable in the long run, and apparently it's dead-simple if you follow the documentation (this is just what I hear--I've never had the patience to try Gentoo, really).

Ubuntu does almost everything automatically for you.

Your pick.

[earobinson]

is coke better tha pepsi, diferent distro for each person,

[ngms27]

OK I want a stable platform to do the following:

1) Trade Financial products for a living
2) Must work well with Java

I've had a few major issues with Netbeans IDE when other Java apps are running. It can kill the machine. I cannot get Eclipse to run at all. All these are on Hoary.

JonnyT

[Dooglus]

Originally Posted by RagingFuryBlack [...] you're required to compile packages yourself [...]

I'm not sure if that's true. I think they provide binary packages if you want them (I never got far enough to find out for myself) - but then you lose the advantage that compiling the package yourself gives you, so you may as well be running ubuntu.

[btdown]

Have you ever tried to install gentoo? Try it...then you'll have your answer.

[ngms27]

No,

I'll try that next week when I've got a few hours to spare!

[rejser]

You set up Gentoo once, That once takes a while to do, but then you never touch it again.
If you are going to install a program just type
emerge *programname*
And it will build it according to how you have set up your system.
Packages in ubuntu doesn't care what you got, it installs the bundle with all the options.