How is Portage on OS X coming along?

statmobile

Okay,
I'm a Windows/Linux user. I only recently discovered the amazing world of linux (2 years ago), and Gentoo has blown the doors off of my computers (<1 year ago). Well my family needs a laptop, so I was considering retiring my machine well before its time, and donating it to them. If I do so, my question is, will my life be better getting a Mac machine. Of course OS X is superior to Windows' crap, but I've always felt the need to be familiar with M$ to be able to provide support for my family. Yet, over time I find myself just trying to make M$ behave more like Linux. How do you like portage on OS X? I'm willing to use Fink, but shoot, I love Gentoo! I want a nice laptop that operates easily (power, and support wise), and my servers will be my Gentoo babies. In gentoo, I mainly use emacs (sorry, but I'm an emacs>vim person), tetex, R, amarok and of course the gcc compiling suite. Any advice for a guy considering making the mac purchase? Should I just get a cheap Dell laptop, and just install Gentoo on it, or is Portage on OS X turning out to be a success? I want to be a helpful contributor to this effort, but I would like some advice on making such a purchase.
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HubyRod · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 92

I was a gentoo lover ... what am I saying ... I am a gentoo lover, and I recently bought a powerbook.
Portage is getting better for ppc-macos, and the only thing I could not find for my mac is a webcam support for msn messenger, this is the only thing.
I think you'll be amazed by the possibilities it will offer you.
H.

dete · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 10

Portage on OS X is very cool, but know that it is nascent. Compared to Gentoo Linux or Fink or Darwin Ports, its got a LONG way to go. The good news: it *is* going there... :-)

Yogh · n00b Joined: 12 Oct 2004 Posts: 11

I have a PBG4 and I have tetex, R, and emacs all installed. I use portage, but I didn't get any of those programs that way. Most of the mac ports have been made independent of portage so you just have to look around and download them yourself. Fortunately in general you can download binaries or installers. I haven't been paying much attention as I've been writing so I've probably rambled a bit, but yes, I have a powerbook, love it to death, have a dual boot with gentoo, have portage on my Mac partition, and would highly recommend it.

DaMightyWhightyMan · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 116

Works good, but the masked apps don't : / so just check packages.gentoo.org for the apps you want to install befroe making a decision. I wanted to run GTK-Gaim (gaim.sf.org) but emerge gaim didn't quite work : ( oh well.. you can still install gentoo on your power book =)

Woland · Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 12:09 am Post subject:

The Mac OS X implemintation of R is excellent, so just get that from your local cran mirror. I have tried to get tetex to build under portage, but to on avail, had to go another route. Both vim and emacs are built in to OS X, but if you want a GUI emacs, once again, you will have to install the binary package---which under OS X is both easy and does not leave a mess. GCC is likewise built in, it comes as a part of the excellent Xcode IDE. Why, even X11 is already there for your conveniance.

Should you get an {i|power}book? Absolutely! They are well built machenes, I can get nearly five hours of battery life, and you get UNIX with all hardware working right out of the box---and working well. No crying about wireless card drivers which have to be run in some sort of Windows emulation mode. My one bit of advice would be to save your money and get an iBook unless the laptop is going to be your primary computer. Perhaps you may want to hold off on the purchase unil you are sure that whatever you are getting will have OS 10.4 pre-installed---it is due to ship April 29.
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MACSRULETHEWORLD · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Apr 2004 Posts: 131

i used portage on mac os x briefly, it was a waste of time. whatever you want can be found in os x native apps, or a quick trip to sourceforge/freshmeat.net

sapo_selo · n00b Joined: 06 Feb 2005 Posts: 26 Location: Portugal

i used portage and i loved it... the only bad thing is that there are only few packages, but i hope that list will grow in the future

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CrimsonScythe · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:59 am Post subject:

Woland: It seems that I was luckier than you, then, or maybe just tried when portage was more mature on the Mac, but TeTeX and Emacs-cvs emerged without a hitch on my Powerbook. That was when using Panther. Now with Tiger, I can't get stuff installed at all; I just get error messages. This is rather unfortunate, since upgrading to Tiger broke my Emacs.

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frameRATE · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 4:35 pm Post subject:

VERY few packages worked... It has great potential though...
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Aonoa · Guru Joined: 23 May 2002 Posts: 589

I´m curious if this project has advanced somewhat? I´ve only recently put Tiger on my powerbook instead of Gentoo and plan on dualbooting between Tiger and Gentoo. Now I´m considering the worth of having portage as it is now, on Tiger... I´d love a portage that works, but the last time I tried it... it really wasn´t that good, so few packages available/working and personally I don´t have time to help make ebuilds work

Been a long while now, so any new and good experiences?

frameRATE · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:40 pm Post subject:

Seems to be progressing very slowly. I dual boot Tiger and gentoo on mine, but can only use gentoo when there's a hardwire connection

(/me wishes for broadcom support!)
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Pax-UX · n00b Joined: 20 Feb 2004 Posts: 65

10.4.1 is by far the nicest OS I've ever used. It has a great GUI and has a BSD backend! Its the ultimate combo meal. While I haven't tried Gentoo on top of OSX yet I'm reading a lot about it, but so far I just haven't found a good reason to do it. All the Linux apps I need are available for down in a Mac image format of some sort. Plus like the some else said everything works out of the box that to me is such a big plus. If youre a UNIX developer then Mac OS is by far the nicest environment to use. Once you find where the Console Icon is youll never look back.

frameRATE · Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:58 pm Post subject:

mavherzog · n00b Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Southern Iraq