10-Day Gentoo Installation Agony

lisah writes, "The Linux distribution Gentoo has a hard-core following, and with good reason. Gentoo is known for its configurability and choices. It's not known, however, for its easy installation. NewsForge's Joe Barr outlined his painful installation experience with Gentoo in an article that explains why, after 10 days, he finally gave up and went with Debian Etch. From the article: '[B]ack in the day, Gentoo users first had to rip the source code from the bone with their teeth before compiling and installing it, but now the live CD had sissified the process to the point that anyone could do it... I exaggerated the ease of installing Gentoo.' And: 'Gentoo doesn't ask what it can do to make things easier, it asks you exactly what it is that you want it to do, and then does precisely and only that.'" Slashdot and NewsForge are both owned by OSTG.

Comments

Same Problematic Experience Here

[Jack9]

Time to install Gentoo: 4 days.
Time to install CentOS: 4 hours.
Time to install Mandrake: Who would do that?

Sorry, when your defense of your distro install is "at least it's not Slackware, go back and RTFM" you've failed to be progressive. You insist that people have to know how to use your very specific tools when there are other distros who manage to automate the same processes, while maintaining configurability. Gentoo package management is ok (I think the etc rebuild is nice), but Gentoo in general sucks for beginners who will learn the wrong way to do things. Do it the Gentoo way or you're out of luck.

Either... Or...

[growse]

Inability to install Gentoo is symptomatic of either:

1. Faulty Hardware
2. An inability to read

Any guesses which it is this time?

Re:Follow the Directions!

[spun]

The fact that NASA robotics teams use gentoo on one of their controllers absolutely and without a doubt proves that every person who has ever used gentoo is a rocket scientist. /sarcasm

As you evidently did not read my entire post before your knee started jerking uncontrollably, let me repost the relevant part here:

But if you do have some spare time, give it a try. You will learn something. Gentoo is a gearhead's distro. Just because 9 out of 10 gentoo users are like ricers who haven't the foggiest idea what they are doing or why, that doesn't mean that someone smart and motivated can't get something out of it. I did. I wouldn't use it as my primary desktop distro, but for getting into the nuts and bolts of the applications you use, there's nothing like it.

Gentoo is great for people like NASA roboticists. But it's really only for people who need to know what's going on under the hood. And I'm sorry if it offends you, but most gentoo advocates come across like ricers, not like rocket scientists.