Gentoo Why Use?

[HunterThomson]

Yes, wile reading through the Gentoo handbook I have learned a lot. I think that is what makes installing Gentoo a good thing to do and what also makes it the l33t Linux i.e. once you get a Gentoo sys installed and configured you know quite a bit about Linux


However, I never did install Gentoo... I am now reading quite a bit about Debian. I like it for the same reasons I liked Gentoo... Correct me if I am wrong:

Rolling distro.... No more distro upgrade hell ((I am still using 7.10 because 8.04 has so many problems with my laptop HW))

Custom... only the programs I use and no nvidia driver (( I don't have a nvidia GPU so I don't need it))

Still cool l33t self made Linux system

But with Debian I don't have to compile everything. I still have all the packages and the install seems a bit simpler. I plan to install it with Ubuntu in the shell.

But the best part is no more distro upgrades
I just want my system to work and "Stay" working not brake with the next release. Not that there is anything wrong with Ubuntu. It is a vary good distro and vary simple to use. There are so many laptops and different hardware it is hare to make one OS to run it all out of box

[M_the_C]

Providing you don't pick to install any of the pre-set configurations (e.g. Dekstop) then yes, Debian is a good choice.

The main drawback of Debian is that unless you go to the unstable repos (i.e. like Ubuntu) then the packages are quite a bit behind.

Gentoo however can be accused of the opposite, the packages can be so up-to-date that they break things.

There is no perfect distro, just choose which suits you best.

[HunterThomson]

WEll,

I just installed Arch Linux

After, a hell of a time getting it up and running with a sudoer, xorg, kdebase, some apps. I am loving it

wasted a lot of time trying to install a custom 2.6.23 kernel (do to mis-information about cd drive not working with 2.6.25 kernel... Only had to add hal to demons... I need to tell that guy on the archlinux forums...)

The FTP ISOCD didn't work so I had to boot into UBS Backtrack and download/burn coreISO CD.

It would have been a whole lot simpler to install if I had a printer or a second computer to read the instructions. I had to do it all form memory

I had my ALSA driver module running last night no problem but now it will not work??? "-Module Not Found"

BUT, in the end it is all I hoped it would be i.e. FAST>>>, only the apps I installed and use, I know how to configure 'most' everything(because I had to, Rolling distro up to date and will stay that way, AND still simple/fast to install new programs.

[sujoy]

for the problem, go to the IRC channel at freenode, there are some really helpful people.

as for arch, well, thats the beauty of it.
you need binaries --> repos
you need source --> ABS

Edit: gees almost missed out on the lovely AUR

[spupy]

Addition to things people already said:

I love the Gentoo packaging system - Portage. First, because it uses soft dependencies. Hard ones always gave me troubles in Ubuntu/Debian.
Revdep-rebuild. Awesome. If for some reason an upgrade breaks programs in your system, revdep-rebuild scans libraries and programs, finds the problems, and fixes them.
And many more little cool features.


Oh, yeah, Ubuntu and Debian don't like my touchpad.

[crimesaucer]

Why I would use Gentoo is for the custom CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS/MFLAGS being used for compiling everything from source on an Authentic AMD64 kernel.....


I gave the install a try, spent a solid 2 days at it, failed the first attempt because I did it wrong in the beginning..... then for the second try I know that I followed every step in the AMD64 handbook for a stage 3 install.... but when I was done and rebooted, I was unable to log into my new Gentoo partiton, and not even my Vista partition.


So I gave up for now and will try again latter when I have time....


For now, I'll just stay with my Archlinux, custom compiled zen2 patched kernel, and pacbuilder to compile my entire system using the same custom flags..... basically as close to a Gentoo system as I can get on Arch.

[chris200x9]

use flags! get rid of unneeded stuffs

[ippokratis]

Revdep-rebuild. Awesome. If for some reason an upgrade breaks programs in your system, revdep-rebuild scans libraries and programs, finds the problems, and fixes them.
And many more little cool features.

Yeah! That's a fine reason too! I love Gentoo because is fast, with only necessary packages, no upgrades, perfect! A little difficult to install it, but after...