Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 28

Thread: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Kansas City, MO
    Beans
    61
    Distro
    Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

    Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    Now I know that Gentoo and Ubuntu or totally different distros. I use Gentoo as I am a programmer and I like the power and flexibility. I also prefer to run things as fast as possible (who doesn't?) so I like the ability to compile everything for a specific chip with -O3 and to not build things in binaries that I never use.

    That being said, Gentoo can also get time consuming. Decent updates can require recompiling virtually everything and that takes quite a bit of time. Anyway, I have heard some users say that the Gentoo speed benefits aren't as great as one would think. The machine I'm currently using as my primary desktop is a 2.4Ghz Celeron with 512mb RAM. Not a powerhouse by anybody's definition but it's pretty speedy with Gentoo. In fact, Open Office runs as fast on this machine as I've every seen it run. (It also takes a lot of time to compile).

    Anyway, to get to the point, a friend of mine currently needed a new computer and I installed Ubuntu on it for him to save him the whole Windows virus/spyware mess. I was impressed by the polish of the distro. It was a little slow (Open Office in particular was practically unusable), but this was also on a 1Gz box with only 256 or so of RAM, so it shouldn't be expected to be too snappy.

    Are there any former Gentoo users who can comment on the performance differences going to Ubuntu? I like the idea of something that just works and requries a good bit less time than Gentoo does. The reason I posted this in the Dapper forum is because I'm considering installing Dapper. I have been using Gnome 2.14 and I'm hooked on it and would prefer to stay with it over going back to 2.12. Thanks for any help.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Jacksonville, FL
    Beans
    29,420

    Re: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    I am not a former Gentoo user because I still have Gentoo on my computers at home and in the office. If you need to upgrade something with emerge, run it from a window and minimize it so you don't have to look at it. Then, continue with your work!!!

    On the other hand, if you want a quick and easy distro to play with, then go for Ubuntu. Of course, I wouldn't recommand newbies to start out with Gentoo because their heads will spin so fast they don't even know what hits them... So, if you are not comfortable with typing in all those commands, then take the easy way out--Ubuntu!!!
    In the world of Linux, who needs Windows and Gates...

    Got most of my golden beans at an auction on eBay (with a couple of free drinks).

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Gloucester UK
    Beans
    133
    Distro
    Ubuntu Studio 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    wrong forum, please take this to the Ubuntu Cafe forum...
    raising the standard wherever required

    Registered Linux User 273897

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Kansas City, MO
    Beans
    61
    Distro
    Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

    Re: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    Quote Originally Posted by taurus
    I am not a former Gentoo user because I still have Gentoo on my computers at home and in the office. If you need to upgrade something with emerge, run it from a window and minimize it so you don't have to look at it.
    I do typically open a terminal, minimize it and let it run. In fact, I'm quite impressed with how well the box runs with the compiler pegging the processor. I did configure the scheduler for desktop workloads though.

    I was most interested in what the performance differences were between Dapper and a "normal" (does that exist?) Gentoo system. If they are close enough, I just may give Dapper a whirl for my primary box. Do you see a big difference between Gentoo and Ubuntu as far as normal desktop performance?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    New York City
    Beans
    15
    Distro
    Dapper Drake Testing/

    Re: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    I found Gentoo boots up so slooooooooow, it took over a minute to boot Gentoo with a minimal Gnome desktop, while Ubuntu takes something like 35-40s. That's what really ticked me off after i spent a day compiling everything and Gentoo was really not any faster then other distros I tried. The apps started like half a second faster, but when the rest is so slow to start, who cares.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Beans
    41
    Distro
    Ubuntu Breezy 5.10

    Re: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    I used to use Gentoo. I haven't really noticed much of a performance difference. This is pretty typical desktop use - email, chat, mp3's, web browsing, Open Office. Some programs would take a little longer to start up with one distro, some with the other. I think it was just because different packages were compiled with different options.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Beans
    173

    Re: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    I used gentoo, the config file update process in it was annyoing, it would really break things every once and a while, speed does not seem much different

    I prefer ubuntu breezy, and now dapper, although dapper is heavy into updates, 5-10 sometimes 20 packages a day get updated

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Beans
    147
    Distro
    Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

    Re: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    Quote Originally Posted by supenguin
    I used to use Gentoo. I haven't really noticed much of a performance difference.
    For most things you wouldn't. However, at least in Breezy there are many packages that have SSE/MMX disabled, some of those applications could benefit from -O2 or -O3. You're not really going to notice GNOME running any faster, but things like mencoder, lame, or XViD are very noticeable. Dapper seems to fix many of those problems. Thankfully, apt makes it fairly easy to fix (though I do my package building in a chroot jail) in cases where some optimizations could be made.

    One of the things that made me switch from Gentoo was that there were a few packages that were masked as testing (even though they had been that way for a couple of months) and required me to unmask them and their dependencies. When I started my World of Warcraft binge I wasn't using Gentoo hardly at all, and I came back to the prospect of having to deal with updating everything and managing those masked packages and their dependencies...ugh.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    USA
    Beans
    41
    Distro
    Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

    Re: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    I have used Gentoo in the recent past (2006.0) and I enjoyed it for the learning experience. Other than that I must agree with previous posts, Ubuntu boots faster than optimized Gentoo ever did on my system, and compiling everything from source to run things a fraction of a second faster just wasn't worth the wait.
    A personalized message: Ubuntu > Fedora

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Texas
    Beans
    275
    Distro
    The Feisty Fawn Testing

    Re: Any Former Gentoo Users (Comparing Ubuntu w/Gentoo)

    I was a huge Gentoo user for a long time, but I moved over to ubuntu for ease of use. Gentoo is great for those custom server jobs....or systems that have next to no resources available. But really...as a workstation or a productivity environment...no way - it takes entirely too long to get working. This guy whos running Ubuntu has his head in the right place......quick, fast and easy!
    ---------------------------------------------------
    Monkeys Monkeys Everywhere...

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •