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Gentoo Linux Reloaded
nitro322 writes "Daniel Robbins, the leading developer for Gentoo Linux, has written an excellent O'Reilly Network article covering many of the various features of Gentoo, what's coming in version 1.4 (due out SOON), and why you should give it a try. If you haven't tried Gentoo yet, what are you waiting for?"
Gentoo needs to make a version that will still compile the software on the system without having to download. Some of us don't have room mates that understand having a dial-up for 5 days straight.
"It has always been this way and it won't change, god bless the fucked up USA" The Briefs
I tried installing gentoo linux in a time not so far away and it seemed like the install was going fine and that the documentation was fairly good until I got to the end.... I installed gentoo linux with ReiserFS support and at the end when I went to compile my kernel I learned a nasty little detail.... ReiserFS support was pulled from the gentoo modified kernel... go figure. If you're going to update your distro then you need to update your documentation as well. Documentation makes the user experience better by providing them with instructions and reference to quickly answer questions without hours of banging head against keyboard.
We could all benefit from my education.
If I am installing it on 10 machines (different platforms x86, PPC etc), each time it wants to download the whole thing. I am ok to wait a compilation for each new box type (later I'll just copy hdd images to similar boxes), but why should it download 10 times?
I find it interesting how many people like having to compile everything and use a distro with such a archaic(not bad, just outdated compared to todays distros) install routine.
What's even more interesting is how many people have left Debian for Gentoo. Debian users are some of the most loyal I know, and yet many of them have simply moved on. I'm guessing Debian blew it with the long delay's between releases.
I also have to say after using linux for a while now, I just have no desire or need to get down and dirty with my distro, am I surprised as many people still are. Keep in mind I'm talking about desktop use where I just want to get my work done, not server use, where I do end up compiling some of my apps.
Personally I just don't have any interest in Gentoo or that style of distro, but obviously not everyone feels that way, since it does seem to be one of the up and coming distros.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
ibiblio seems to be very dependable for me, and I don't remember seeing things like this on the support forum. (Of course, I wasn't looking for stuff like this either).
"Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely."
Word, we talk like everyone has the time and the extra machine and/or is willing to reinstall the one they have, like it aint no thing. I think for the majority of people trying different linux distributions like picking ice cream at 31 flavors aint going to happen.
It'd be cool to try them out without having to do much on our part to see if its worth it. Well, maybe that's what the linux expo's are for.. But I'm to cheap to fly anywhere for an xpo. Maybe LUG's? I have yet to attend one.
Why should I use Gentoo? Really. Is there some huge feature comparison matrix for all the different distros? Is there really any major innovation between distros?
I don't run *nix that much. I have a dual boot at home for Mandrake 8.2 and W2K. Do different distros really only matter to the elite linux hackers?
The site's all fscked up.
Apache errors, database errors, the fronpage keeps changing, what up? I do like the screwed up frontpage with the ads tiled diagonally across it. It's different anyway.
With my newest box, it came down to either being Debian or Gentoo. Gentoo would only do a CD install (I didn't have a CD-R) so Debian won. Give me a floppy/FTP install and I will give it a go.
Michael Loves Me!
Only a few months ago, I tried gentoo and had like 10 broken ebuilds while installing. That was too much for me, so I wiped it and put slack back.
So, in August, I gave Gentoo another shot. Only had one faulty ebuild on the install, which is ok with me. Skip ahead a few weeks, I install the GCC 3.2 1.4 pre-release. Not a single problem during the base install, and no problems with anything else either(kde, gnome, mozilla, etc).
Overall, I'm very impressed with how far Gentoo has come. Thanks to everyone who contributes to the project!
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Always standing, I am a tree awaiting the lightning. -Samael, Crown
Acutally, I tried Gentoo as a semi-newbie. I've nearly all the major releases working but, it wasn't until I installed Gentoo that I really learned the inner workings of Linux systems. That was a HUGE benifit. If you are an 'experienced newbie' I would suggest if you have the Phat Pipe (TM) and l337 Hardware (TM), then wade into this full blast. Even if you don't keep Gentoo as you distribution of choice--You'll be better for the experience. The task is challenging but the documentation is good. I also personally like the non-bloatware feature and portage system (I admit nothing about being a BSD user!--you have no proof!).
Like I said give it a try. At the very least you can pick up some skills and that is worth the compile times (on a 1.2Ghz w/ 256DDR system takes me about a long evening start to command line--then emerge gnome or kde while you sleep).
Cthulhu for president!
I'll be the first to admit that I have problems with GNU/Linux left and right (minor ones at that) with the major distros that I have tried (Mandrake, Red Hat, Debian). Gentoo was no different. Some ebuilds didn't complete, and some just didn't work. The thing that kept me using Gentoo was the website, and the friendly help I got in the forums.
There was no question too big or too small when it came to asking for help. I also think that their website is one of the simplest yet thorough sites to navigate around. Not only did I quickly solve my problems, but I ended up with a Desktop install that works faster than anything else I tried. I also gained knowledge about GNU/Linux that I would never had gotten from using a distro like Mandrake.
Also, I don't know about anyone else, but I find it much easier to grab packages from the Gentoo mirrors than to look them up, and download them myself. All of these priceless goodies without even mentioning the benefits of portage which a lot of slashdot'ers are quick to shoot down or overlook in some blind way.
One of the things I do is leave a 2 gig or so partition around to 'fart around with'. That's enough space to do a full install of most distributions. This also lets me:
/mount/hda/home/zapman, I don't really care)
1) leveradge my existing linux swap partition
2) mount my home directory (though it might be in
3) Learn a lot about other distributions without much cost. (2 gigs... come on.)
And with gentoo, you don't even have that cost... they have 'live cd's. Boot of the cd, and you have a working gentoo distribution in RAM. Great to play with. Great to play Unreal Tourny 2003 on linux! (that's the main point of the disk)
Zapman
Anyways, one day drobbins decided to change the name to something less secular, and so we sat around thinking up names ... We started thinking along the lines, what did we want to say about our linux? ... we bandied around lots of names, eventually I found some zoo site that said the Gentoo Penguin was the fastest pengiun there was ... and the name stuck
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Yea it had some biblical conection ... There is the Book of Enoch in the old testament (I believe?) but I dont really understand how that related to linux if it did at all. Probably one of the reasons the name was changed :)
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Word, we talk like everyone has the time and the extra machine and/or is willing to reinstall the one they have, like it aint no thing.
Quite a few Slashdotters are like that. I have 5 or 6 usable PCs and try different things on them for experience and learning and goofing off.
I've used a couple of different versions of RedHat and Debian, Turbolinux (it came on a CD with my NIC), and started off with Slackware in 1994. I've been using Debian lately but have fond memories of Slackware, and from what I've heard Gentoo sounds right up my alley.
Of course this is not in a production environment.
And it does sound to me like Gentoo is for the people like me who goof around. (Bleeding edge source-based distros don't sound like what I'd want to administer at work, though.)
Oh, and by the way: Word!
You wink, but it's true. That's why I left Gentoo. I got sick of the constant compiling, even on my 1GHz P3.
Now I follow Debian sid and I do just fine.
the "spartan" install procedure is more than anything a rite of passage to keep total idiots away from the distribution.
Think how much less annoying their lives got. Sure you've got the idiots who couldn't cut it, but you can tell them to get Mandrake and they'll be off on their merry way. What you don't have is a bunch of people with working systems screwing them up in different ways.
Tech support people know that if you have a finite problem set then it's much easier--what can go wrong during installation is finite, what can go wrong later on is not.
It's by design. And if you can't type commands off of their *very* detailed install guide then there really is something wrong with you.
you need an imac.
Brian