Why Gentoo?

26242 · n00b Joined: 23 Sep 2005 Posts: 1

Over say, PCLinuxOS? I want Pro's and Con's!! Thanks!

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

Moved from Other Things Gentoo
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Pithlit · l33t Joined: 27 Dec 2003 Posts: 887 Location: fuhen

No reason. There are no pro's and con's. Linux == Linux. What your choice of distro is depends only on how much it suits you. It's the "try before you buy" system... only that you don't buy stuff... but you stick to the distro that works (be it LFS or Linspire).
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Q-collective · Advocate Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 2071

Hasn't this been discussed about a trillion times before?

Suicidal · l33t Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 959 Location: /dev/null

Because Gentoo has better support for network analysis than most so called "Enterprise" distributions, and its free as well

semi-fly · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 2:27 am Post subject:

mrhodes · Guru Joined: 01 May 2002 Posts: 310 Location: Halifax, NS

I like Gentoo because to me its a great learning experience. Before I found gentoo, I didnt know much about linux at all.... but by using gentoo I quickly learned a lot about how linux works and now I'm able to solve problems a lot easier then before.

Also, the fact that this is a source based distro is a nice thing as well, as long as you have a fast computer

I've tried a couple other distros before I started using gentoo, but to me they just didn't feel right. It felt like I was limited to what the distro included and that I didn't have the kind of control over things that I have in gentoo.

The only con I can think of, which doesn't bother me too much is the fact that it's source based...... I'm only refering to the time to install programs. For me I can have a complete system installed in one day... so it's not so bad..... before I installed gentoo on a amd 400 and that was painful, lol.

Also, the gentoo community is great. If I ever have problems with compiling things, the community is always very helpful, and I would say that 98% of the time I ask, or look for solutions I find it within hours, ir not sooner.

Best thing I can tell you is to just try it out.... if you have the time, and the spare hd space try entoo out

you'll have nothing to lose. Just don't give up if you run into problems in the beginning... gentoo is worth the initial learning curve, trust me on that

Hope this helps you in your decision.
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pksings · Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:04 am Post subject: Why not?

Gentoo provides total control of your O/S. That's good, and bad. Great if you have the time and motivation to learn and keep up on all of it. Bad of you just want a running system that does it's thing with minimal hassle.
Some people update regularly very smoothly with Gentoo, some get regular problems. I have seen a lot of complaints about ebuilds not compiling and "breaking" systems. Kernel compiles are not a simple thing either. Other distos provide working kernels and you only have to re-compile if you have something esoteric all of the "normal" stuff works with the pre-compiled kernel. Gentoo optimizes for your machine architecture. This in some cases can be a significant increase. It's also why some of the other distros now optimize kernels for different CPU's also.

Gentoo will definitely force you to learn about your computer. I have learned a lot. At times I'm really happy with my Gentoo system. At times I'm seriously pissed with it. For the most part it has run well, it currently is not, and I'm looking at leaving Gentoo as a result.

I put Ubuntu on my laptop about 8 months ago and have had no problems that I did not cause. (I deleted some stuff I shouldn't have). I have had my Gentoo system about two and one/half years and have had numerous problems that we caused by bad ebuilds, patches and things that just won't compile. I honestly think it was better when I first joined the community, the forums were much more friendly. I'm guilty of posting venemous messages myself in response to things emerged. But general attitude has changed. As far as I'm concerned, it's time to go. No more Gentoo for me. Ubuntu get's my vote, you know, the one with your wallet, how you pay for stuff because it's good.

Personally I'm saddened. It was good. It's still better than a lot of the others. Portage rocks, apt-get is a least it's equal. Debian is a slow moving distro, Ubuntu seems to have taken it to another level and quite frankly I'm impressed. I think it's a better Linux. None of the others seem to have the community support either. PC-whatever doesn't have the mass, nor does mepis. agnula-demudi is cute, but will always be a niche product. And it has an extremely small support community. Redhat and it's clones are what they are. RPM sucks. That includes Mandriva, which I might add customizes so much stuff and puts things in weird places. Drove me nuts. I have never tried Lindows, dumb name, dumber concept. There's another one, that supposedly is great for noobs coming from windows, I can't think of the name. No matter to me, my recommendation is what I use. Ubuntu. Best support, best package management (tied), regular releases and updates, will always be free.

Doesn't get any better than that.

PK
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PK

humbletech99 · Veteran Joined: 26 May 2005 Posts: 1229 Location: London

cos Gentoo has cool forums and a nice purple colour..

I wonder who chose that colour?