What in your opinion makes Gentoo a successful project?

feam · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2020 Posts: 7

Even though Gentoo is not that popular between linux users, the project is really solid. Why ?

I know that maintain a big project like this requires a lot of effort and dedication for years. Is this the "secret" or there is something else?

This probably sounds like silly questions but I really would like to understand what makes Gentoo great.

halcon · l33t Joined: 15 Dec 2019 Posts: 649

feam · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2020 Posts: 7

halcon · l33t Joined: 15 Dec 2019 Posts: 649

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2020 9:20 pm Post subject:

feam,

Gentoo is popular precisely because its not a distro.

Gentoo is the Portage package manager and the ::gentoo ebuild repository.
Everything else is upstream.

Gentoo is a toolkit you use to design and install your own distro.
No two Gentoo installs are alike.

Gentoo has a steep learning curve because as the distro designer, you must make all the decisions that binary distro packagers have already made for their users.
If you come from a binary distro. That can be a bit of a shock.
_________________
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Ant P. · Watchman Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6920

Be careful of measuring "popularity" by some arbitrary nonsense metric like physical media releases, volume of complaints, or some page hit counter website from the early 2000s.

feam · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2020 Posts: 7

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20485

Bones McCracker · Veteran Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1611 Location: U.S.A.

I think general Gentoo users should be made more aware of the downstream projects that are built on Gentoo, for example Chrome OS, sysrescuecd, etc.
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gorg86 · Guru Joined: 20 May 2011 Posts: 315

3 things:
-Portage is great, I would even go that far and say it's the best package manager
-streamers that get trolled into installing it live
-Bones McCracker's sarcastic comments

Athenian200 · Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2020 12:20 am Post subject:

I would say that what keeps me coming back to Gentoo is that you can learn a lot about how Linux distros are constructed, and it's sort of like Linux from Scratch on steroids. Gentoo is also one of the few distros that actually gives you the full freedom offered by the ability to build all system packages yourself from source.

These days I actually use something called OpenIndiana more because I don't really like the way the Linux kernel is going, and feel if anything it's too dominant. But when I do use Linux, it's usually Gentoo because of the amount of flexibility it permits and because the experience working with something like portage is very helpful if you ever want to move on to any Unix-based kernel that isn't Linux, because a lot of those will often expect you to be able to build the tree using scripts if you want to contribute. Messing with Gentoo ebuilds when they break with unusual configurations is a great way to move from being a norrmal Linux user to figuring out how to build packages from source on other Unix-like operating systems.

russK · l33t Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 665

user · Apprentice Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 211

successful project^H^H^H^H^H^H^H ecosystem

- using open source code as _origin_ of all software
- using a framework (portage) to deal with among of complex/different source code and compile options
- using optimal binary per hardware
- using same config/layout for decades, no distro fascistic
- gentoo fit it, LFS is too minimalistic

sitquietly

paintchip · n00b Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 58

heaped · n00b Joined: 06 Oct 2020 Posts: 1 Location: ::1

in my opinion its the extensive combustibility of everything, literally compiling every down to the kernel.
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based

CaptainBlood · Advocate Joined: 24 Jan 2010 Posts: 3860

Flexibility is my secret word for tonight :lol:

Thks 4 ur attention, interest & support