Why do you use Gentoo

coolsnowmen · Veteran Joined: 30 Jun 2004 Posts: 1479 Location: No.VA

Its something I thought I'ld never hear:

audiodef · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:32 pm Post subject:

LOL!!!!!!!!!! Love the graphic!
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darkscreamer · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:15 am Post subject:

I use gentoo because of its high rate of customization and optimization, because portage rocks, and because i like to set things by myself and not let the system choose for me.

audiodef · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:15 pm Post subject:

kernelOfTruth · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:50 pm Post subject:

Prodigal · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:38 pm Post subject:

Because at any time if I think my system is getting flakey or unstable I can change a few things (USE flags, KEYWORDS_ACCEPT etc), remove a few programs, re-compile the entire system and then add back what packages I want into a stable environment. As opposed to binary based Distros where if a program gets borked you've got a whole lot of work to do to remove it, clean up, re-install, reconfigure etc and the program will STILL just be a binary and not compiled from source so it might still not work.
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neonl · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:51 pm Post subject:

I like having the control. Mostly for that. I don't think i get a better performance by compiling everything with the accurate CFLAGS, but the usage of USEs, to compile them with only the *useful* things, and being able to mix branches without any problem (yes, with Debian i can mix Lenny and Sid, but it just doesn't work "well") are great features.

I'm far from being a Gentoo fanboy, though. There are somethings that i don't like in gentoo like, for instance, having the need to make gnome-base/gnome lighter manually (with package.provided) because gnome-light isn't updated on ~x86. But at the same time this gives me more control over the lightness of my gnome desktop itself, so i think i can say i'm quite happy with Gentoo.

ashleycurtis · n00b Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 1

I just like the community.

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audiodef · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:00 pm Post subject: Yet another reason...

Windows Vista fail!

I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 that came with Wonders Vista. It has all these "security" features that prevented software from installing and didn't let me make any hacks to my own software. I turned some of that crap off and the OS crumpled like cheap tinfoil at the first breath of a virus. I mean, totally collapsed. Browsers would not open. TSR programs crashed left and right. On top of that, the frickin' OS would not reinstall - eventually it just hung near the end.

I got this laptop for my GF and she hated the OS right off - it was slow, it took up 25% of a 160GB hard drive, and wasn't very friendly. She prefers XP. I mentioned that when I bought the laptop as a surprise, I thought of wiping the drive and installing Gentoo. I shoulda listened to the little voice in my head.

Well, I'm installing Gentoo on it now, knowing that I'll never again have that kind of problem on that laptop.

Buh-BYE, Bill! Thank you for the charitable donations, but your software blows.
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fallstoofast · n00b Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 63

I can call my friends noobs for using windows

dylix · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:25 pm Post subject:

why do i use gentoo?
because i can

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trajedi · n00b Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 73 Location: Dallas

thevirtuesofxen · n00b Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 9 Location: Ohio

Gentoo was my last hope for a fast computer. I was so frustrated with every operating system I had tried Windows XP was SLOW, and so was every other Linux/BSD distro I tried. In fact, Ubuntu devs ensure that your system isn't optimized in any way everything is compiled with "-g -O" and dpkg-buildpackage overrides any custom CFLAGS you try to set. It is really annoying.

sgerdan · n00b Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 31

I had had enough of those noobish distributions and wanted to try something different.

And I'm happy with it so far.

Kriss · n00b Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 1

I tried many different distro's and used slackware for quite some time, however it lacking a real package management system that would handle dep's properly led me to give it up. I tried some other distro's, fedora, opensuse, ubuntu etc.. but I found them too complicated for proper use, I mean I've never been a gui config guy, I like to do stuff myself so when the doc's just refer to gui tools I kinda get fed up. Since I've used slackware a long time, gentoo isn't that big of a transition (except emerge which I love!! kinda like bsd's ports) and the optimization is just great, gnome is compiling now and I hope it will run smoother than any other system..

reminds me, had Vista pre-installed on my laptop. Seriously. that was crap. utter crap. i only installed a few programs and suddenly my hard disk was nearly full. wtf? so glad I got rid of that. I just hope for a more recent version of monodevelop 1.0 is available, because then i have to build it myself, pita!!

audiodef · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:49 pm Post subject:

spupy · Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:41 pm Post subject:

Well, it happens that Gentoo is the first distro that completely works with my laptop. I used Ubuntu and Debian before and both froze with my touchpad, even the latest Ubuntu. Gentoo has no problems!

I know I can fix this, but I don
t bother, happy with gentoo.

Also, Gentoo is like those customized hotrod cars that pros build!

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shiney · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:55 am Post subject:

I like using Gentoo because I like reserving the right to mess up my own system on my terms. Just kidding. Well, maybe not, but when I do, I know I have the best support forum to help point out the error of my way.

HardcoreLinux · n00b Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 20

I like Gentoo because it is source based with an amazing package manager allowing you so much customization, I love rc-update and init scripts i makes it so much easier to control what loads at boot. It's documentation is great. everything...

spupy · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:39 pm Post subject:

Hm, could you say that Gentoo is kind of the polar opposite of OS X?
As far as I know, with OS X you get many thing decided instead of you, you get a ready system, you don't get to modify it, and can use it according to some rules, which rules you can't alter. You get a fact - "this is the OS, use it like this".
With Gentoo you can make many choices, you start from scratch, you can modify the system and the rules. You get the choice - "you can go this way, that way, or make a new way."

I'm not saying that either approaches are better/worse. Maybe the masses like the OS X "philosophy" more.
I happen to like the Gentoo way.
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neuron · Advocate Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 2371

I use gentoo because I require a high amount of customizability. Being able to stay mostly on stable, but keep some git packages installed etc, while still keeping everything in the package manager is extremely practical.

glitch666 · n00b Joined: 01 Apr 2008 Posts: 18

I use gentoo because its the only one that actually taught me what linux is.
Ohhh Yeah LARRY THE COW ROCKS

jordanwb · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:53 pm Post subject:

Well I use it on my server. I had Ubuntu on it, but I was getting tired of the stuff that was preinstalled that I never wanted. I like how it's really easy to compile stuff, especially the kernel.

Sprotte · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:13 pm Post subject:

At this point, my main reason is "Gentoo sucks less"

The second reason being, "I know it"

:-/

A good OS has yet to be developed. Gentoo is probably less of a PITA than most, especially if you have a reasonably fast machine to run it on.

I do wish stuff like installing a printer, printing over the network, etc was easier; I believe that the OS should make _some_ decisions for you, and these should be made by the most qualified people.

I also think Portage should be a bit more automated and smarter. For example, if I do "emerge [a nonexistant package]" it goes and calculates dependencies, instead of just telling me "there is no package X". If I make a typo, or can't remember a package's name exactly, this can freak me out. I cannot use the search function because it is ridiculously slow. I know there exist external programs for this, but it should please go into portage already... please...

Also, unneeded dependencies (orphans) and double packages should just be cleaned out already, automatically. Old distfiles should also be automatically cleaned. I know there are valid points to be made against those, but can this please be the default, and let advanced users switch the automation off, instead of requiring manual cleanup by the casual user.

And let's not start about "X config files need to be updated". I like to ignore that message as long as possible. :-(

Subversion can keep track of single-line changes in text files; why can't portage? The fact that it even asks me if I want to substitute a blank config for my painfully hand-tuned one, is insulting. Why are there even 100 config files?!

Portage is probably my main beef with Gentoo, which is a bit sad. At the same time, it is the reason I prefer Gentoo to FreeBSD; along with framebuffer, 3D support, and the Linux kernel.

My other problems with computers in general aren't affecting gentoo, though. Examples: The development "structure" and "goals" of wine, and the arrogance and stubbornness of its developers, who seem to be turning it into ersatz-Windows. The default advice is "open regedit and do X" more and more often. Excuse me, if I want that, I can just install Windows 98. I sadly need wine because I make Quake levels, and some tools are Windows only; on the other hand, a benefit of wine is that some things run faster than on Linux. Another problem is the fact that there is simply no good browser. It seems impossible to make one :-/ Same goes for graphics software (Gimp is ridiculously slow compared to primitive Windows programs running in Wine), audio software (running Goldwave in wine is superfast compared to something like Sweep), etc. pp.

That has nothing to do with Gentoo, though. More with Linux or even OSes as a whole. I just generally wonder why Windows programs running in wine are faster, and why there is simply no good basic browser after all this time. I use opera instead of firefox or konqueror, even though all my other stuff is GTK, and opera isn't open source; I use goldwave instead of audacity, even though it requires wine and isn't open source; I use stuff like Wally, and probably soon PSP, instead of gimp because gimp is so bloated.

It's about finding the least painful alternative, a lot of the time. This means that my setup is suboptimal, most of the time. :-(

What good are CFLAGS if opera or [$windows_program in wine] are just faster, slimmer, neater? ^^ Do I need CFLAGS for vim, mutt and irssi? I think not. I use almost no open source apps for browsing, graphics, sound, modelling (don't suggest Blender plz), and word processing (I have abiword installed, but am seriously considering Textmaker).

I am becoming suspicious of open source projects when there are too many people involved. I believe many cooks are detrimental to the quality of the food :-/ I'll take a shareware program by a small, determined company over something like Gimp, Firefox, Openoffice, or KDE anytime.

The part I love most about Linux (you may insert /Unix here) are, frankly, command-line programs. I wouldn't want to give up stuff like vim, mutt, irssi, gcc/make, fbi, even elinks, and specialized command line stuff like sndfile-resample, sox, normalize, mpd/mpc, and so forth. For graphical applications, I find myself often preferring slim commercial/closed source/shareware stuff, often older versions that have lighter hardware requirements, along the lines of Textmaker, Opera, Goldwave, Cooledit, older PSP versions, and similar. A lot of GNU stuff seems terribly bloated and slow. And when you're working with sound, graphics, 3D models etc. a lot, and have a project repository and TRAC (ticket system), of which at least the latter is accessed via browser, you WILL notice what is slow, and what isn't.

I haven't seen an OS that made me say, "yes, this is it". As long as that is so, I'll use Gentoo. I admire the sleekness of a Unix server/router/firewall, too.

Windows 98 isn't bad, though. Behind the above mentioned Unix router/firewall, preferably. But as soon as X, GTK, Mozilla and friends enter the picture, I'll pass... because that is where I start having problems with GNU/Linux.

It's like in the mutt slogan: "All mail clients suck, this one just sucks less". Same goes for OSes.