Gentoo Linux is Incredible!

[ttye0]

I wanted to get all of your opinions on the worlds greatest (;p) linux distribution. I practically fell in love with this distro (http://www.gentoo.org) about 5 months ago. Don't bother posting a opinion if you havn't tried it yet...get a rc2 or even better a rc3 install ISO and burn it and give it a shot. You won't regret it unless your one of those linux users that think they're linux guru's and only know how to change directories and use rpm. Yet, you will learn so much about linux from gentoo you wouldn't believe. I couldn't possibly explain how great this distro is, but everyone give it a shot!

(p.s. - Great package management system! see: emerge)

[converge]

What about gentoo do you like, and why? I know there have been a few recent discussions regarding other distros... but this one has not been mentioned.

Packaging systems rarely impress me, and I tend to use them even less...

What other reasons might I have for switching to it from my current pimped out box?

[mod fyi... this has potential to not stay in /dev/null]

[octalpus]

Sorry, waiting 3 days for KDE to compile just doesn't do it for me. You can learn just as much on Slackware, without the agonising wait.

(And no, that wasn't an exaggeration... seriously... 3 days)

[ttye0]

Reasons:

Portage - This has the best portage/package system I've seen.
Package System - Easy, system specific, and no hunting down deps.
Fast Development - Even though it's still a baby in the linux world it's growing fast. Ex: When bugs are found or ebuilds are created for the users and they are submitted, the updates are added to the update servers (bad terminology) within a week and sometimes within 48 hours. Probably everyday you could run 'emerge sync' and find tons of updated packages.
Compilation - You have the choice of having everything done for you, but completely compiled specifically for your system which leads to more stability and more functionality.
Easy Install - (Unless you don't know as much as you think you do about linux)

I stuck with one distribution for 7 years and tried numerous distributions, including Open and Free BSD...and I wouldn't budge from my old distro until I found Gentoo. I believe there's going to be some changes in linux distributions due to Gentoo. I don't think anything out there adds up to it right now.

octalpussy, you on a 250Mhz system or do you have a slow internet connection? It took my friend that long but he's got a old ass system thats slow as hell. I got a 950Mhz AMD Athlon and it didn't take me any time at all to install my WM. Hell, I installed a couple just in case I decided to use them while I didn't have net connection. Seriouslly, I don't understand how it could have taken you 3 days unless your installing it on a Atari or something ;p

[simple3]

Originally posted by octalpussy
Sorry, waiting 3 days for KDE to compile just doesn't do it for me. You can learn just as much on Slackware, without the agonising wait.

(And no, that wasn't an exaggeration... seriously... 3 days)

I think mozilla takes even longer.

oh yeah, and I believe I did mention that i do run gentoo on a few machines, and like it as much as any other Linux flavor

--simple3

[octalpus]

Originally posted by ttye0

octalpussy, you on a 250Mhz system or do you have a slow internet connection? It took my friend that long but he's got a old ass system thats slow as hell. I got a 950Mhz AMD Athlon and it didn't take me any time at all to install my WM. Hell, I installed a couple just in case I decided to use them while I didn't have net connection. Seriouslly, I don't understand how it could have taken you 3 days unless your installing it on a Atari or something ;p

This was a p2-400 mhz laptop over a cable connection. Not the most up-to-date system, but certainly nothing I'd consider outdated, either, especially for an everyday Linux box.

[ttye0]

Damn man, don't know what to say to that. I guess a good connection and a 800+ Mhz processor are the recommended system specs? ;p

[octalpus]

I split off some posts that said nothing other than "I tried Gentoo, but my distro is better". If you're not going to contribute anything to the discussion on Gentoo, please post in another thread. If you tried it and didn't like it, post WHY you didn't like it. If you prefer another distro, then post exactly what it is that you find Gentoo lacking that the other distro has. Otherwise, you're not contributing to the discussion at hand.

Thank you.

[Cyb3RSoldi3R]

Another Distro to attempt on my lappy. I'll see if it'll take. Most ones I've tried have issues with the ACPI though.


Current standings for the Lappy.
worked:
Mandrake 8
RedHat 7.3 and 7.2

haven't:
Slackware
FreeBSD
OpenBSD
WarLinux
/edit DeBain (note: this has been said to work using special kernels for dl yet not for me 0_o)

*note: If you think you know it works or you plan on flaming cause of user error then goto the help section and check toshiba troubles to be humbled.

[Chris]

Originally posted by Cyb3RSoldi3R
Another Distro to attempt on my lappy. I'll see if it'll take. Most ones I've tried have issues with the ACPI though.
haven't:
Slackware
*note: If you think you know it works or you plan on flaming cause of user error then goto the help section and check toshiba troubles to be humbled.

I am running Slack 8.1 on a Toshiba laptop and have been since Slack 7.0. I think Blackwave does too.

[blackwave]

Originally posted by Chris
Blackwave does too.

Roger that, I have 8.1 (w/2.4.20) running like a dream on my Toshiba 2800-s201... like a dream i said! :) slackware for life!

[jetforce4004]

I want to put linux on a REALLY old computer and redhat is so huge ass I cant fit it on the drive so I'm gona try to put gentoo on it. Its gona run slow as hell cuz its a 133mhz pentium with I think 32 mb of ram. Will it just run too slow on a 133mhz, is it much better than nothing? any ideas of anything a 133mhz can run decently. I'm trying slackware next

[octalpus]

Originally posted by jetforce4004
I want to put linux on a REALLY old computer and redhat is so huge ass I cant fit it on the drive so I'm gona try to put gentoo on it. Its gona run slow as hell cuz its a 133mhz pentium with I think 32 mb of ram. Will it just run too slow on a 133mhz, is it much better than nothing? any ideas of anything a 133mhz can run decently. I'm trying slackware next

It's not a matter of Gentoo running slowly, it's a matter of having to compile EVERYTHING. If you don't mind having to wait a week while your system compiles the packages you want for it to be useful to you, then by all means, Gentoo will give you exactly what you want in the end. However, just for comparison, it took just over a day for the base system to compile on a p2-400 mhz laptop, and almost THREE days for KDE to compile. This is a system considerably faster than the one you propose to install on. Note, this is just to get it up and running. A week down the road, when you decide you want something else added to your system, you have to sit and wait for it to compile. On a system such as yours, that's going to tie up most of your available resources, meaning your box isn't going to be useable for at least a few hours, possibly a few days, while your package compiles completely from source.

[jetforce4004]

Right now the 133mhz is just sitting there doing nothing so its not going to be a problem. It could take a month for all I care as long as it works. I still need to find another graphics card for it because the mother board dosnt come with one. I think i'll try it because thats the only thing I can think to load on it.

[Cyb3RSoldi3R]

I am running Slack 8.1 on a Toshiba laptop and have been since Slack 7.0. I think Blackwave does too.

Bah, then you guys got the good ones. It locks up on install, all the places I've checked say RH and Mandrake are the two that will work (another on too but I can't remember). Other then that the installers on all of them won't work due to multiple problems from each. The ACPI is one common problem between the two. For instance to illistrate how the problems very between OSes SW 8.1 will install perfectly but mwhen it goes to boot up it does fully kick in (yes I've tried any tips anyones given me on the linuxquestions board, seems noone else own one of these). Then when attempting OpenBSD I can't even partition the drive (locks up while trying to load the kernels off the cd). At any rate word has it that SW 9 is gonna fix me problem so right now i'm gonna dl Gentoo and give it a try.

/edit DeBain!!! That's the other one that was said to work using custom kernels for dl yet when I did it (yes it was done right) would sitll lock up at start up.

OH, and if you wanna dl the ISO to try Gentoo it's at ISOzone