Why do you use Gentoo?

[GDH-gentoo]

[JustAnother]

I tried to update Debian from Wheezy to Jessie, the first systemd version. Things went wrong that I didn't think could even go wrong. So I tried gentoo to avoid system***. Catch my drift?

[DeadlySyns]

[wwdev16]

I started using Gentoo in 2002 because I heard about this distribution that was keeping track of configurations and
dependencies for sources. Stuff that I was manually doing for Redhat 7.x.

To avoid repeating "in my experience/opinion" just take that as a given in what follows. The experience part is I
have been an admin/sw developer using VMS, Windows 3.x/NT, Redhat 7.x, debian, and Gentoo.

Besides the configuration flexibility mentiond by others, the reasons I am still using Gentoo are:

1) Operationally open-rc is flexible, predictable, and debuggable. For example you won't find that you have a stealth
ntp client running that you didn't configure and didn't want. By default systemd in debian starts an ntp client even
in a vm. You won't have nginx get automatically started as soon as it is installed as happened with debian.
You also won't have a minor system update kill your ssh session - it seems that debian+systemd is so smart that
the system update of ssh killed the ssh sessions and left the local package repository state broken.

Open-rc services can be fairly simple to create. It took about 15-20 minutes to create a service for our web-backend
that nginix talks to. Expressing the service dependencies between nginx and the backend was simple.

Custom open-rc run levels allow having easily switchable startup configurations. For example: office and roaming.
For different net configs you just have /etc/conf.d/net.office and /etc/conf.d/net.roaming and then some
special boot manager entries that add runlevel=office or runlevel=roaming to the kernel command line.

Running multiple instances of a service with open-rc is generally simple: create a symlink in /etc/init.d, copy
/etc/conf.d/<service> to the new service name, copy config files and you have two indepdent ssh services
that can be independently started/stopped. For example an ssh that is pubkey only on the wan address and
an ssh-vpn that accepts pubkey and keyboard interactive logins on the vpn address.

Open-rc doesn't make me think of the nightmare of the windows registry or windows binary logging.

2) Portage as a package manager and the packages collection are big pluses. The many types of built-in
package dependencies are great. Its amazing that you can have an ebuild specify that app-misc/pax-utils
must be installed with the pyhon use flag so that lddtree will support the --copy-to-tree option. The breadth
of the packages is also great. For example mail-mta/protonmail-bridge and net-vpn/protonvpn-cli are available
even though protonmail.com is probably not as well known as gmail.

3) Cross compilation support is great. IIRC, the chrome os project used (and maybe still does) Gentoo as part
of its build process. I have installed Gentoo on pcengines apu2c4, odroid XU4, pine rock64, raspi 2/3 and
soon raspi4.

4) The devs do listen and respond when treated respecfully. I have had some proposed patches accepted
and used in a modified form and also have had a feature request poiltely declined.

[Ralphred]

[carcajou]

Some of the reasons, probably not all of them:

1) update model - I run stable branch, but unstable only for the stuff where I really care for newer/latest versions. The way it should be - I do not need latest&greatest for every single piece of software installed, but for the stuff I care - there is no issue;

2) I can run full-blown system with heavy-weight DE (Plasma in my case) and all the software I need, while still keeping it lean, sleek and with the options I really need;

3) freedom of choice in every possible way;

4) local/remote overlay(s) with custom profiles combined with source nature of distro really allow limitless possibilities;

5) community - I do not participate on IRC, but this forum is really full of amazing, technical and skilled individuals.

[apiaio]

At the beginning Gentoo was adventure for me. Now, romance and hobby.

[bghoons]

Name (at most) 3 important features you find on Gentoo but won't in other distros (or simply is better implemented in Gentoo)?

#1 Although not as important as it was in the past due to current cheaper ram prices, one can slightly improve system performance and reduce memory footprint of the kernel by pruning unused components such as (for me) ReiserFS and Amateur Radio Support. I have been able to free about 300mb ram by removing certain components. On an older 4gb ram laptop this makes a difference but for my 16gb rig, not so much.

Of course, one can compile a kernel in any distro but Gentoo has excellent documentation for doing this and it is a central theme for Gentoo whereas for others it is a side issue or is presented as something you ought not meddle with. Gentoo has genkernel to facilitate kernel compiling.

#2 Portage: all-around excellent. In other distros there seems to be a fondness or even fetish for "apt-get ~it~" but really, "emerge ~it~" is just as easy. More importantly, I don't have nagging update messages like Windows-wannabe distros: "Now now, dear user, it's time to upgrade some software. Sit in this high chair and we'll put a bib on you while we spoon feed updates and put stuff on your computer you might not have wanted but we know better than you so we're going to install this extra stuff regardless. And stay away from Gentoo with their dangerous, scary USE flags: you want to stick with us becuase we care a lot, really we do."

#3 Rolling release. There is no end-of-life release for Gentoo! You can be as current as you want or dare to be. Once installed, there is no need to re-install from a dvd or flash drive every 6 months or follow a release cycle unless there is a major architecture change like going from 32bit to 64 bit. I look forward to 128bit computing in the future.

Name (at most) 3 features you don't find on Gentoo but wished it had?

#1 GUI disk partitioner like in Linux Mint when installing the base system. Although I am proficient using parted & fdisk, the GUI is so much easier and gives a good picture of what's going on rather than scratching it out on a notepad the disk layout. But you only have to do it once so not a big deal.

#2 A more user-friendly installation process. Although the Gentoo Handbook is good, the SystemD and OpenRC parts are not as clearly separated as much as I would like.

A friend of mine tried to install Gentoo but the installation procedures were too daunting and time-consuming so he went with Linux Mint. I think more people would use Gentoo if it were easier to install. Not many people want to manually create disk partitions but would rather press the "Do It All For Me" button. I am not one of those people but I do see that the Gentoo Install Marathon turns people away from Gentoo.

Installing Gentoo from the Handbook is like a Rite of Passage, kind of like the old Kung Fu series where you are Grasshopper locked in a chamber and cannot get out unless you grab with your forearms the burning urn and lift with all your might to open the stone door. In that chamber I saw a lot of skeletons of users who wanted to be a Kung Fu Linux Master but couldn't lift the burning Gentoo urn.

Yes, I kind of feel like I am a member of an elite corps having installed Gentoo and used it successfully for years.

[JustAnother]

[superjaded]

[figueroa]

MX-Linux live USB will meet your need as an install environment for Gentoo. It not only has Gparted already installed, you can 'install' any other tools you might want on-the-fly, with persistance if you choose.
_________________
Andy Figueroa
hp pavilion hpe h8-1260t/2AB5; spinning rust x3
i7-2600 @ 3.40GHz; 16 gb; Radeon HD 7570
amd64/23.0/split-usr/desktop (stable), OpenRC, -systemd -pulseaudio -uefi

[alamahant]

I could mention the "cliche" notions of freedom,total control,customization etc.
But today i will go with
It is FUN!
It is ADDICTIVE!
It has a kind of ZEN into it...
Does it lack anything?
NO!!!!

_________________

[Tony0945]

[duane]

[Dominique_71]

3 features I like:

- Being a meta distribution with a lot of overlay, including personal overlays.

- Being source based. That with the precedent point, give both flexibility and facility for installing software, including software not present into portage or an overlay. It also made possible than a world update will preserve the system integrity and don't leave you with a broken system.

- Its freedom of choice that give an incredible flexibility.

- I know, I cannot count up to 3. That forum is the best GNU/linux forum of all. So, thanks you all!

3 features I don't like:

- The time it take to manage. But I guess this is the price to pay to get the features I like, and when I RTFM, I will eventually learn things.

- The time it take on old hardware to compile software like libreoffice. But I think, if I compare with the other distributions I was using (mostly Suse and Debian), it is the price to pay to get a stable libreoffice when running it. libreoffice-bin is not an option as my whole system is ~amd64 (at the exception of the kernel with is the last long term supported rt-sources and the corresponding linux-headers), I try once but was just too time consuming to manage to install it (lots of software version conflicts reported by portage).

- The time it take for portage to make its calculation and report what must be done or what it want to do when starting an emerge world, but I guess it is the price to pay for portage to insure the result is correct. Portage being based on bash and python is certainly not the best way to get a fast software, but maybe it is the good choice in order to get sufficient man power for developing it, which give us a software that just do what it is intended for and has improved a lot from the time I begun to use gentoo.