gentoo v. debian, which is right for me

thechris · Veteran Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Posts: 1203

i like a lot of things in gentoo, but don't like to spend hours trying to figure out how to configure things. i've found that almost NONE of the guides online work. the mousewheel+side button guide did not work. the alsa-guide did not work. the samba guide did not work. then there are things without guides where things should work, but don't. portage also seems not to include as large a number of packages as debian, though gentoo includes more updated packages.

so i've heard that debian not only has an installation script, but a configuration script, where things get set up for you. anyone know if this is any good. i have friends who use debian and those who use gentoo.

i'm sick of rpm based distributions, but the only 3 non-rpm distros i know (free-bsd, gentoo, and debian) all seem to be too dificult to configure.

jjasghar · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 8:09 pm Post subject:

my advice is stick with gentoo, i tryed debian back in the day and it just didn't fly. i've learned so much about linux though gentoo. it's hard and frustrating but worth it. just work on it and you'll be happy....eventually.
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PowerFactor · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 8:26 pm Post subject:

I've tried debian and found the configuration at least as difficult as, if not more so than, gentoo. Yes it has an installer, but but it's nothing you're still likely to be lost with it if you don't rtfm thouroghly. And then once you get it installed most of the configuration is just as manual as in gentoo. Debian is good if you want binary packages or if you need a slow moving, super stable distro with a well established security update system. But it ceartainly isn't any "easier" than gentoo IMO.
And as far as documentation goes, gentoo as some of the best and most up to date of any distro out there. If the official guides are not working for you then you have either caught them at one of those times when they are slightly out of date, or you just aren't following them carefully enough.

If you want to move away from rpm based distros gentoo is probably the most noobie friendly you will find. Except for Linspire and Xandros maybe. :wink:

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