Why do you use Gentoo

padoor · Advocate Joined: 30 Dec 2005 Posts: 4185 Location: india

yes i have ubuntu
i am a memger of the forums too
tags depend on the poster
what he defines will be searched for.
anyways more helpful in that part of it.
i found less answering people

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Yamakuzure · Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:26 pm Post subject:

Hmmm... after adding the gentoo forums to firefox' Search bar I never had any problems any more with searching and finding the stuff I am looking for...

...but then, it is too much to ask for to click on a button and on "Add Gentoo Forums" and use that instead...

Why I use Gentoo:
Full Compile of a 2.6.26 Kernel under Debian: 74 Minutes
Full Compile of a 2.6.26 kernel under Gentoo: 35 Minutes
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yabbadabbadont · Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:05 pm Post subject:

TheX · Guru Joined: 31 Jul 2004 Posts: 349 Location: .de

its the nicest distri ...

kernelOfTruth · Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:35 pm Post subject:

d2_racing · Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:59 am Post subject:

Is there a way to change that ?

Yamakuzure · Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:23 pm Post subject:

Bogo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 May 2002 Posts: 98

I have been using Gentoo for a long time now, since 1.3 days I think. I've just become so used to Gentoo that it's the easiest for me to use. I've been trying to use Kubuntu here and there, but when something doesn't work, it's a big mystery to me what to do. The desktop I have now is fast enough (quad core) that compile times are insignificant.

My laptop is getting aged, and it has become a real drag to compile packages, so I tried Kubuntu. For some reason, even though the essid of my access point was in the config file, it would never connect to my ap unless I manually specified the essid with iwconfig every time I booted. I got frustrated with this and went to FreeBSD, since it can install binary packages with pkg_add.

FreeBSD is nice. It's really easy to manage and oddly familiar

The only problem I have with it is that the binary package system is not very powerful. It will install a package and its dependencies, but there doesn't seem to be an upgrade world/system of sorts, or ways to easily clean old packages. Ports can, but if I wanted to compile things I would just use Gentoo.

Actually I never liked Debian much to begin with. The location of config files and startup scripts seems mystical. It's also a drag when a .deb doesn't have a feature enabled and you want to recompile it, which seemed to happen often to me, especially when mplayer was involved.

I really liked Slackware way long ago before Gentoo came out, but the lack of a package manager eventually made me go back to Debian.

Does anyone remember Storm Linux 2000? Kind of like an old time Ubuntu. Worst day of my life was the morning I woke up and I couldn't update my repository anymore. The company had gone bankrupt and shut off all their servers.

RedHat was never appealing, maybe it's better now, I don't know. RPMs introduced me to real dependency hell. RedHat was the first distro I was able to get a usb mouse working in.

Mandrake was actually my first distro, back in 2000 I believe. During the install, it would successfully print a test page on my Lexmark win printer, but it wouldn't work after. Actually, in no linux distro was I able to get that crap printer to work, except for during the Mandrake install.

Now that I think about it, man, using linux sucked bad back then. Getting something like sound or usb working was a major feat. While I'm reminiscing of the past... I used to run Warcraft III in wine on my laptop. These days, running a web browser makes it feel like trudging through laffy taffy. That one I don't understand very well.

Gentoo is just good :/
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elvisthedj · Guru Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 483 Location: Nampa, ID

Portage
The Community - I've gotten some great answers to some not so great questions from people much smarter than myself
Comfort - I grew up in the DOS days and that makes it easy for me to be a "Windows Power User" not because its such an intuitive OS, but rather because I get what's going on under the hood more so than someone who started out with 98, XP, etc. Gentoo gives a new linux user a much better grasp of what is going on under the hood. That certainly wouldn't be mass appeal, but it definitely appeals to me.
I like the little pacman logo. If there's ever a successful fork of Gentoo, I hope the logo is a ghost monster so they can battle it out.

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d2_racing · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:57 am Post subject:

alfagamma81 · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:37 pm Post subject:

Reasons:

- Customization. No need to install something you really don't need/want
- Need of certain level of interest in your operating system. I don't like everything being "out-of-the-box and ready to use"
- Support of "not top 10 in distrowatch" (probably never will be..) distribution
- Feeling of being "gentoo bad ass"

- Very good documentation pages and supporting forum

These are for starters.

TheAbu · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:14 pm Post subject:

1) Great learning experience. I started Linux with Gentoo and even if not everything was easy at first I did learn a lot thanks to Gentoo.
2) Being able to install what you want/need and only that
3) Command line configuration for about everything. More difficult at first, but when you get used to it so much more powerful (and faster) than all the nice GUI you see around.
4) Lean and mean when you want it. I have 4 computers with Gentoo, and even the smallest one (Sempron 2400) is fast and perfectly usable.
5) Great community. Never had the need to ask any question, reading the forum was enough to find all the answers I needed.
6) Very stable. I run ~amd64 on all my computers ( ~x86 on the sempron) and even so, never had a problem that wasn't fixed by an update or a solution posted on the forum within 24 hours.
7) "versionless", by that I mean, provided you update regularly you don't have to worry about a 'Gentoo 12' is out, I'll have to update, time to backup my data and reinstall the system.
I did play with some distros after installing Gentoo, but none were as much fun to use and none gave me as much control.

Thanks to the devs, long live Gentoo

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sk8harddiefast · Guru Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 335 Location: athens

1)because have the best community ever!!!All people here give there life to this os.
2)because i am a pc maniac.that i want to make in my life is to create a kernel (is a dream =[=[=[),to be a sysadmin to a datacenter (is a dream too =[=[=[) or to help linux (especially Gentoo) to be more better and stronger =]=]=]=]=]=]=]=]!!!!!!!!
3)because is free
4)because is the harder and the most "modified" distro.i can do anything and learn really a lot of things!!!!!before i install Gentoo i have read in internet than only install will learn you a lot of things.Is completely true.only installation is a great experience
5)because portage is one of the best package managments with over 11000 packages
6)because i can intall only that i want
7)because i can trust it 100%
8)because during the installation i learn my system from point to point.
9)terminal gets life.the power to live in bash
Gentoo's power is his installation!!!IT MUST BE DIFFICULT.THAT MAKES IT TO BE AN ILNESS.THAT MAKE IT TO HAVE THE GREATEST COMMUNITY.FROM THIS DISTRO YOU WILL UNDERSTAND HOW A PC REAL WORKS AN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT IS AN OS AND HOW TO CREATE IT.I BELIEVE THE MOST PEOPLE LOVE GENTOO AND HAVE PASSION FOR THEM BECAUSE IS UNFRIENDLY AND WHEN YOU INSTALL IT IS A POWER AND A VERY BIG EXPERIENCE.
And 1000000000000 other things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!For me is the best operating system in the universe and i will never change it!!!!!!!
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01allein · Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 7:23 am Post subject:

Simply Gentoo has become my everydays drug............. :lol:

lsegalla · l33t Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 796

I began to use gentoo when, one day, i had a talk with a gentoo user (in this forum). I was a mandriva user at work (kubuntu at home) and always was terribly simple, but when i had problem every time i were not able to find a solution without the help of people who knows linux. I was very curious to try gentoo linux and i did a great thing deciding to use it at work.

I had a lot of difficulties during installation, the time i had was very short and i finally used the live-cd.
But i kept using, and using... and making other gentoo box beginnning to install gentoo in the command line and i began to learn.

Now every day i learn something, and when i put my hands on a unix system i feel at home because i can start the konsole to see how the things are. I'd never change gentoo with another linux system (or windows) because:
- there's a lot of documentation and wiki which explain in details how and why do things
- i learned a lot, and sometimes i'm able to solve my problems by myself (and friend's ones)
- my system is always updated, and i don't need to change version of gentoo in the years, i install it one time, and i'm updated
- great tool to compile ebuilds on my box with the right dependencies (and i can understand what dependencies really are!!)
- people ready to help and teach something when i don't know a thing or there isn't a help tool... great community

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:13 pm Post subject:

In fact, the gentoo doc and the community is awesome.

I learn new stuff everyday too

throdon · n00b Joined: 21 Feb 2008 Posts: 54

I came to Gentoo for the same thing I came to linux for Knowledge.
I started out on *buntu and then went to Sabayon great communities and great distros.
I have run the minimal cd lots of times and tried the alternate install lots of times, but this time I have not only made it to startx(even though it's not working yet, but that's in another post.) I have really started to understand things on the hardware side and software side and how they work together.

It took me 2 years to go from the point of I want to "install" gentoo to where I am right now and actually installing gentoo. this time is different, I KNOW I will accomplish this and even if my present install is crippled and retarded, I am already prepping for a second more optimized install on my laptop and I also will eventually put gentoo on my desktop box also

to summarize: Gentoo used to be an unattainable phantom, now it is a monster and it has it's claws in me, someday I will be it's master or a least a pretty good gentoo admin.

live CD/DVD installable distros are great and give you a progress bar, the progress bar in Gentoo, it's in your head! ( this is an important concept to me and the levels of comfort I am experiencing with gentoo ). this sounds very negative, but it is a very positive thing for gentoo, who needs a progress bar when you know where you are at in the install because you built it yourself.

oh yeah the community is amazing , I used to be scared of you guys. now I am one of you and amazed by what I have learned and expierience.

plus is there any end to the documentation? Even on gentoo's docs page, I am finding things that meant nothing to me days ago, mean a lot to me today.

So thanks to gentoo, I am happy with what you have done to me, I just wish I had more time in my life it sucks when your life gets in the way, and you have to shut down and put gentoo away at this stage of the game.http://xkcd.com/456/

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

Sabayon != Gentoo
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d2_racing · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:28 pm Post subject:

durian · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:46 pm Post subject:

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

throdon · n00b Joined: 21 Feb 2008 Posts: 54

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

People need to look into the Gentoo/Sabayon/funtoo relationship more for analogies.

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 9:39 pm Post subject:

Coke has a good point, technicaly they use ebuild.

So they are related, but can we say that Funtoo is Gentoo based, I think so because it's based on the portage tree but it uses git instead of cvs.

So, Funtoo is Gentoo based and that's about it.

fractalis · Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 4:25 am Post subject:

I've been using Linux on and off, whether at home, school or at work for a number of years now. Over the last month or so I decided to give Linux on my desktop a shot after getting a new HD (I had been running Ubuntu on my laptop only). I started off with Ubuntu and as always, was satisfied by the ease of installation and the number of packages available via apt-get. In messing around with trying to get my video card working I ended up putting the system in a somewhat unstable state (which is more a result of me upgrading to Lucid Lynx). I tried Fedora and ArchLinux, and out of the 3 at the time I think AL was my favorite.

But something was missing, and I was reading an older issue of Linux Journal talking about underdogs. It made mention of Gentoo and remembered trying it out years ago, but didn't really have the depth of knowledge of Linux that I have now.

Long story short, instead of celebrating New Years like regular people I was hunched over my keyboard staring at nothing but a console for the better part of the day. After a long session of getting the initial Gentoo system set-up I finally got X, and then XFCE running. My video card is running now, albeit via ATI's proprietary drivers, and my system seems extremely fast - faster than with any other distro. Perhaps its my own mis-perceptions. Needless to say, I've learned as much about Linux in the last 4 days that I have over the last 4 years. For once, I feel like I have control over my system.

So, to summarize:

The customization / control over my system that Gentoo provides
The community, which has been extremely helpful on IRC helping me with some issues I've had
Portage/emerge, which has been the most pleasant means of installing packages I've yet encountered
The fact that I'm compiling packages based on my system, so it will be optimized
The challenges that Gentoo provides, but the satisfaction that comes with getting everything working they way you wanted and intended