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| Is gentoo a distro? |
| Yes. |
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73% |
[ 34 ] |
| No. |
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2% |
[ 1 ] |
| Sort of... in between. |
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23% |
[ 11 ] |
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| Total Votes : 46 |
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swagr
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 18 Apr 2002
Posts: 90
Location: Toronto
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 Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 4:15 am Post subject: Is Gentoo a distro? |
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Or is it a system for creating a distro. YOUR distro.
Perhaps the diffeerence between installing from a precompiled binary off a cdrom, and using portage is insignificant whe we ask this question.
Most users of distro's such as Slackware, Debian, or RedHat, expect that the maintainers have done some serious testing to ensure everything works. And normally this is close to true. With the distro you build from Gentoo, who knows if anyone is running the same versions of x,y,z as you are. Testing is now your responsibility.
On the other hand:
If you use tools included with Slackware to install a package (ncftp, make, gcc), and that package broke your system, would you or could you blame Partrick Volkerding?
Does it make any sense to say "Gentoo is a stable distro" or "Gentoo is a secure distro" or "Gentoo is an up-to-date distro"?
What exactly is this thing?
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garbageiscool2
n00b
Joined: 18 Apr 2002
Posts: 45
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| Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 5:01 am Post subject: |
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gentoo is a source based distro  |
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alec
Apprentice
Joined: 19 Apr 2002
Posts: 270
Location: Here
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| Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 5:13 am Post subject: |
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Umm.... yes, the maintainers of Slackware, Debian, and Redhat have done lots of work to make sure that all of their packages work. Who knows what RPM or DEB or TGZ or source they've installed. Actually, I know lots more people running Slack or Debian that use a 2.2 kernel than I do people running Gentoo. I think Portage keeps people more in date - how many people aren't running linux-2.4.19-gentoo-r5?
As long as I am using Gentoo's portage tree, I'm using the Gentoo distribution. It's really just a different (very different) way of managing packages just like Debian's dselect/apt-get or Redhat's up2date. |
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phaze3k
n00b
Joined: 24 Apr 2002
Posts: 36
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| Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 11:33 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | how many people aren't running linux-2.4.19-gentoo-r5 |
Well, me for one (had problems with my USB mouse locking up).
As far as I'm concerned there's no question Gentoo is a distro - everytime you do an emerge rsync you're getting centralised ebuild lists, which download/compile the packages in a standardised (albeit tailor-made) way. |
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mksoft
l33t
Joined: 28 May 2002
Posts: 844
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| Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2002 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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If LinuxFromScratch is considered a distro (see http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/ ) then Gentoo qualifies as well 
(and listed there as well).
I see Gentoo as a cross between Debian and LinuxFromScratch  (my previously used distros).
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fghellar
Bodhisattva
Joined: 10 Apr 2002
Posts: 856
Location: Porto Alegre, BR
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cokey
Advocate
Joined: 23 Apr 2004
Posts: 3355
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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I like the "tool to build your own distro" approach, can we give it another name then?
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Vanquirius
Retired Dev
Joined: 14 Jun 2002
Posts: 1297
Location: Ethereal plains
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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In my view, Gentoo is a "minimalistic" distribution with great scability thanks to Portage.
Interesting thread... It's suprising how in the earlier days of the forums OTW (was it /dev/null back then?) was more centered in Gentoo itself.
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ctuma
n00b
Joined: 24 May 2004
Posts: 29
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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| cokehabit wrote: | | I like the "tool to build your own distro" approach, can we give it another name then? |
TTBYOD?
Custom Distro? (CD)
I kinda like the Gento CD.
Gento Live C(ustom) D(istro)
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codergeek42
Bodhisattva
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 5142
Location: Anaheim, CA (USA)
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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Gentoo is a meta-distribution. It gives you the tools to build your own system to do pretty much any task you set for it: a router/firewall, a workstation, a server, etc.
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cokey
Advocate
Joined: 23 Apr 2004
Posts: 3355
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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i do like the way that you aren't MADE to use either gnome or kde (even though i use kde), but thats what the choice of Gento is all about
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ctuma
n00b
Joined: 24 May 2004
Posts: 29
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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| cokehabit wrote: | | i do like the way that you aren't MADE to use either gnome or kde (even though i use kde), but thats what the choice of Gento is all about |
Choices are tough, they make me think! Can't we just have binary choices? Like the US election system? I don't want to actually have to understand what's going on around me!!
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Boris27
Guru
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 562
Location: Almelo, The Netherlands
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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| cokehabit wrote: | | I like the "tool to build your own distro" approach, can we give it another name then? |
Great way to necropost....
I think its still a distro.
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cokey
Advocate
Joined: 23 Apr 2004
Posts: 3355
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Boris27 wrote: | | cokehabit wrote: | | I like the "tool to build your own distro" approach, can we give it another name then? |
Great way to necropost.... |
i found it whilst searching, thought it was interesting and i didn't want it to get "moved to dups"
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frippz
Guru
Joined: 22 Aug 2002
Posts: 460
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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Not bad, jumpstarting a two year old thread like that...   |
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cokey
Advocate
Joined: 23 Apr 2004
Posts: 3355
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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well with an interesting subject like that there was no choice....
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gentoo_lan
l33t
Joined: 08 Sep 2004
Posts: 891
Location: Charles Town, WV
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 12:41 am Post subject: |
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| I believe Gentoo is a distro...by far one of the best distros i've seen. |
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cokey
Advocate
Joined: 23 Apr 2004
Posts: 3355
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 1:54 am Post subject: |
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| gentoo_lan wrote: | | I believe Gentoo is a distro...by far one of the best distros i've seen. |
and how would you describe it as a distro? it come with no preinstalled programs nothing, its a tool to build your own one with your own unique settings (hopefully you will know not to -ffast-math everything)
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Frodg
l33t
Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Posts: 761
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 2:11 am Post subject: |
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| cokehabit wrote: | | gentoo_lan wrote: | | I believe Gentoo is a distro...by far one of the best distros i've seen. |
and how would you describe it as a distro? it come with no preinstalled programs nothing, its a tool to build your own one with your own unique settings (hopefully you will know not to -ffast-math everything) |
I can't quite get my head around the difference between a "Distro" and a kernel, with a customised package installer (with the ebuild concept) and lots of distributed packages on a Cd.
Don't all the other distros do very similar but just add their specific GUI configuration tools???? (and hype)
I wouldn't call Gentoo a Distro normally but where is the major difference?
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spb
Retired Dev
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Posts: 2135
Location: Cambridge, UK
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 2:41 am Post subject: |
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| The other thing to remember here is that the things that make Gentoo what it is (portage, our ebuilds, and the init system) don't just run on linux. |
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gentoo_lan
l33t
Joined: 08 Sep 2004
Posts: 891
Location: Charles Town, WV
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 5:43 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The other thing to remember here is that the things that make Gentoo what it is (portage, our ebuilds, and the init system) don't just run on linux. |
I believe it is a distro because of the specific tools that it provides. Granted you can install Portage on virtually any linux system you want with some tweaking. This is a distro that just gives you more choices rather than a prepackaged system of stuff that you may or may not want. |
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cokey
Advocate
Joined: 23 Apr 2004
Posts: 3355
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 11:11 am Post subject: |
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| gentoo_lan wrote: | | Quote: | | The other thing to remember here is that the things that make Gentoo what it is (portage, our ebuilds, and the init system) don't just run on linux. |
I believe it is a distro because of the specific tools that it provides. |
Gentoo provides or GNU provides? 
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Athas
Guru
Joined: 04 Sep 2003
Posts: 394
Location: Brøndby, Denmark
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gentoo_lan
l33t
Joined: 08 Sep 2004
Posts: 891
Location: Charles Town, WV
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 12:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Gentoo provides or GNU provides? |
I believe that they are not GNU-projects also but that is beside the point. The question is what makes a distro...a distro? Distros typically have a unique behavior compared to other distros. Gentoo has an failry unique package system compared to the other distros. Gentoo also has different internal processes such as the init scripts and rc-update which make it unique compared to the other distros. It handles processes differently. Granted when you get done with a Gentoo install you have a command line. It is a distro that can be fully customized to fit a users need. That is its trademark as a distro!!!  |
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spb
Retired Dev
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Posts: 2135
Location: Cambridge, UK
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 1:02 pm Post subject: |
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| gentoo_lan wrote: | | I believe it is a distro because of the specific tools that it provides. Granted you can install Portage on virtually any linux system you want with some tweaking. |
I think you're missing the point. The things that make Gentoo Gentoo work equally well with FreeBSD or MacOS X (and, soon, OpenDarwin) as a base, instead of GNU/Linux. I'm running Gentoo here; I just happen to be doing it without a linux kernel or GNU coreutils, etc. |
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