How Did You Get Here?

pandoraxero · Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 2:49 am Post subject: How Did You Get Here?

It is a simple question, really. What brought you to Gentoo Linux?
Was it the level of customi(z|s)ation?
Were you looking for a challenge?
Did someone recommend Gentoo?
Or was it something else?

Since I'm asking, I'll answer first:
I started on Gentoo in 2005 or 2006 (I blame Time Dilation for the uncertainty there).
After having tried Mandrake, Debian, Fedora, and being on SuSE at that time, I asked somewhere online what distro I should try next (I blame Underage Drinking for the uncertainty as to exactly where I asked).
Someone recommended a Gentoo Stage 1 install. Retrospect, it was likely a troll (I blame youthful naieveté for the uncertainty there. I was 19. I think. See previous comment regarding Time Dilation).
If it was a troll I suppose the joke's on them, as I've been running Gentoo ever since.

pietinger · Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 5:03 am Post subject:

I have to say thanks to a working colleague. We had in our company OS/2 and because of OS/2 was dying we must switch to Windows (company decision) ... but all my colleages in my system development department hated Windows (me too) ... so, we switched to Linux and had all kind of them (our department was the only allowed to do so - all others must take Windows, haha). I had OS/2 and SuSe at home, many had RedHat ... and the best Linux expert showed us Gentoo. My first question was: I need a 3270 emulation (because we had also a S/390 ;-)

). He did an "emerge 3270" (I cannot remember exactly) and started it. Some configuration and we had a connect to our Host. It was in 2005 and the first two years I had help from him for every problem. Therefore I signed in later in our forum 2006.

ajgringo619 · n00b Joined: 01 Nov 2022 Posts: 38

For me, it was definitely the challenge. Gentoo was the last major distro that I had never got working, and when I say "working", I mean with everything working as my other installs. I started with the OpenRC install - seemed to be better documented at the time - with all non-binary packages. After getting a systemd XFCE w/GPU pass-through built - was running Folding@home until my energy bills got out of hand - I finally feel like I've got a decent grasp.

Now it helps that I've been running UNIX/Linux since the late '90s, so I've got a good idea of how things are supposed to work in case they don't. It also helps a ton that this forum is so informative; can't thank everyone enough.

Juippisi · Developer Joined: 30 Sep 2005 Posts: 757 Location: /home

Bought and got my first 64-bit processor and searched for a distribution that supported it. Jump from Slackware to Gentoo was rather easy :). 2003.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 11:47 am Post subject:

pandoraxero,

I started with Red Hat 6.1 or 6.2 from a magazine cover mount DVD in 1999. I still have the DVD :)
I moved from 6.x to 7.x to 8.x all the time noticing that it was not only forcing me do what it wanted, but forcing me to do it its way.
By 2003 I was looking for a distro that let me do what I wanted, my way. I downloaded Red Hat 9 but never installed it.

I got my selection down to LFS and Gentoo. Gentoo appeared to be LFS with a package manager, so it won for ease of maintenance.

I came across my original 2003 liveCD a couple of years ago. The rest is history.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

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

pa4wdh · l33t Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 892

Before i started with Gentoo i've used SuSE (written as S.u.S.E. back then) and RedHat (i still have a 6.0 boxed version

, i couldn't download back then).

Main reason to look for other distro's are the (in my opinion) stupid programs that are supposed to make system configuration easier (YaST anyone?). Main problem with them is that they make a generic problem (for example: how to configure via ntp.conf) into a distro and tool specific problem, often limiting your options because the tool's programmer didn't think about all the use cases, and often keeping you stupid because they hide the "complexity" of how stuff really works.

Fortunately Gentoo has none of this

. I also like the fact that it compiles everything from source so i have control over the dependencies using USE flags. Even patching sources couldn't be easier with user patches, try that with some fancy binary distro where you first have to install a lot of -dev packages before you can actually compile and consequently have to install the package outside the package managers control.

And last but sure not least, Gentoo has a helpful and knowledgeable community

_________________
The gentoo way of bringing peace to the world:
USE="-war" emerge --newuse @world

My shared code repository: https://code.pa4wdh.nl.eu.org
Music, Free as in Freedom: https://www.jamendo.com

pandoraxero · Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 7:39 pm Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 7:50 pm Post subject:

pandoraxero,

That's exactly what you do to test a package for its ~arch keyword, where its not yet keyworded.

Its a well trodden path. Yes stuff breaks, so file bugs. Stuff works, file bugs or PRs to apply the ~arch keyword.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

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

Chiitoo · Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 8:58 pm Post subject:

Always (like since around 2000) wanted to try Linux, but could never decide on which distribution to try, and didn't give it that much thought overall.

In 2010, I finally installed Ubuntu, but felt it was quite boring... so to speak. Kind of like Windows.

I unfortunately can't remember how I found out about Gentoo. Maybe distrowatch, though I don't remember how I would have bumped into that either, or why it would have made me look at Gentoo.

Either way, already at the install phase I was hooked! Kind of reminded me of Commodore 64, the only time I had used something similar to a terminal to launch games, and even program some simple games (that, and Dragon 32).

Definitely did not imagine I'd become a forum admin, and an ebuild maintainer myself at any point, but here we are. ^^;

Learned so many things during my time here it's kind of crazy, and the team, as well as the community as a whole are definitely things keeping me around even though there have been some rough times...

duane · Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 11:21 pm Post subject:

I started using ms-dos in the mid 1980s, then (grudgingly) added windows in the mid 1990s. After the turn of the century, I was already getting sick of microsloth's philosophy, so I decided to try that free operating system that I'd heard about on some forum. Ubuntu was the newest, sparkliest thing at the time, so that's what I went with -- dual booting at first.

After a few months, I realized that I really didn't need windows anymore, and dumped it. Then I started getting bored of ubuntu and wanted to try something else. Everyone I chatted with advised me to stay away from gentoo, because it was way too difficult to be useful. Naturally, I did the opposite of the common wisdom, and found that (if you could follow instructions) it was fairly easy to use.

But, I got bored of gentoo eventually, and installed another binary distribution. By then, I'd gotten used to being able to configure everything the way I wanted, so the other distributions felt like badly fitted shoes. I bounced back and forth over the years, but always ended up with gentoo again, with the lyrics from Hotel California echoing through my head.

sublogic · Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 11:34 pm Post subject:

Around 2004, had ordered a laptop for work, chosen from the authorized models. Consulting mobilix (later tuxmobil.org, now extinct) there was one reported install using Gentoo. So Gentoo it was.

Stage 1 installs were a thing back then. I remember thinking, "Linux from Scratch must feel like this, except you wouldn't be riding a jet engine."

The laptop was good, and so was the distro.

flexibeast · Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2023 2:07 am Post subject:

First started using Linux in the late 90s[a], RedHat 5.2 'Apollo'. Have come to Gentoo via Mandriva, Ubuntu, Debian and Void, using a Linux system as my daily driver for the last couple of decades. Moved from Debian to Void as a result of the former moving to systemd, which felt unnecessarily overcomplicated and overengineered for my particular use-case, and which felt like it significantly reduced my ability to understand and fix problems with my system. (Of which i encountered a number with systemd. though i can't remember them all now, other than hangs/timeouts on laptop startup and shutdown.) i certainly didn't/don't have a problem with systemd on the basis of it being 'new' - in the last several years i've learned runit, s6, 66, mdoc(7) for writing man pages, and POSIX-portable shell. The issue is more often that i enjoy learning too many new things at once. :-)

Void is an excellent binary distro, but i realised i've come to the point where i know what i do and don't want/need on my system, and Gentoo gives me fine-grained control over that. But i also quickly came to appreciate Gentoo's overall design, and very informative and helpful output from things like emerge; and i've also found the Gentoo community to be friendly and helpful. :-)

[a] Although i first started using computers in the early 80s - 6502-based machines like the Apple IIe and the TRS-80 (and later the BBC-B). Later used and played around on the 8086-based Amstrad PC1512 and the 68000-based Amigas and Macs.

pandoraxero · Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 12:28 am Post subject:

Spanik · Veteran Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 1008 Location: Belgium

Tried a boxed version of SuSE a very long time ago. Interesting but no internet so getting other applications was almost impossible. I went back to Windows. Then loosing a lot of work (and not only mine) due to the idiot way Windows manages disks with those drive letters I decided to take another look at Linux.

By now we were early 2000's, I "needed" a new pc, internet was there and was working at another company with software guys that ran everything from Linux, OS/2 on a dual Alpha and a HA cluster to serve mp3's over the company network. (those were the days) So I went to them and asked around a bit. Debian seemed to be the most popular. Gave Debian a try, but couldn't get further than a terminal. Went back to Suse but while I had the audio I wanted I couldn't get other stuff running. Then took a try with RH (was it already Fedora). Here it was the opposite, I got everything I wanted except the audio. Ubuntu was the new kid on the block then so I gave that a try. But didn't even got to install it on the pc.

Don't know where I heard it but someone told me that Gentoo had a good handbook on installing. So I tried that. Worked my way through the handbook and a stage 1 install. Everything worked from the first time. Whatever I wanted to add I found in the repository and after emerging it just worked. So I stayed with it.

It really is the handbook and the forum that does it for me.
_________________
Expert in non-working solutions

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20540

mrbassie · Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 5:39 pm Post subject:

Linubie · Guru Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 385

carcajou · Apprentice Joined: 10 Jun 2008 Posts: 248

Started with Linux I think in 2003 or 2004, it was Mandrake. Moved to Slackware rather quickly.

Few years later got bored with Slackware and I thought that it would be good idea to move to a more "mainstream" distro, so I started mini-project - I wanted to use network/minimal installation where I would install the system from the scratch with only the packages I need/use. Tried Fedora Core, Ubuntu, SuSE and Mandriva, but ended with disappointing results. Simply when you get to full blown desktop, you already had bloated system and it seemed impossible to reach my aim with binary package manager, unless I manually (re)build packages.

So I decided to go with Gentoo, because it seemed that I can achieve what I want. It was correct choice - I could have full desktop system, while keeping installed software at minimum and it was extremely fast and performant. Additionally, Gentoo installation and daily usage got me fascinated with build systems and compilers. Simply, this act of transforming something from human readable form to binary and machine code, that later perfectly fits into the OS setup, was/is extremely interesting to me.

stefan11111 · l33t Joined: 29 Jan 2023 Posts: 937 Location: Romania

I got tired of what windows was doing and I decided to move to linux. I knew a thing or two about it already and I was confortable with the command line. I wanted customization and to learn more about linux. I first thought about using arch, but I found it less appealing than gentoo and LFS seemed like a burden to maintain, so gentoo it was.
_________________
My overlay: https://github.com/stefan11111/stefan_overlay
INSTALL_MASK="/etc/systemd /lib/systemd /usr/lib/systemd /usr/lib/modules-load.d *udev* /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d *tmpfiles* /var/lib/dbus /usr/bin/gdbus /lib/udev"

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20540

Chiitoo · Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 5:23 pm Post subject:

The fact how stable my system has been even with all those '**' and live ebuilds I have been using, and how easy the tools Gentoo provides make it to switch between those and the more stable options, roll back, or/and to test, bisect, and eventually contribute to projects is definitely another reason I stick around still.

I like to catch issues early on, and, if possible, get them fixed before actual releases, though regrettably I've had a lot less time for it as of late (silly work getting in the way and stuff).
_________________
Kindest of regardses.

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3461 Location: Canada

duane · Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 9:52 pm Post subject:

kernel_tux · n00b Joined: 15 Feb 2022 Posts: 33 Location: Denver, CO

For me, it was the "The Gentoo Challenge." I had recently purchased a $200 Thinkpad specifically for distro testing...so if I borked it, I wouldn't lose anything that's mission-critical. Once I got a GUI installed, I figured "Hey, I got it this far, why not actually try running it?"

That was about a year ago, and I've been running it off/on ever since. The distro-hopper in me never went away, and I still check out shiny distro releases for a few weeks, but I always return to my Gentoo home.

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20540