Some questions about Gentoo...

TheNewOsiris · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 91

The other day a friend of mine told me that I should switch to Gentoo. I have been using Kubuntu for about 2 years and everything "just worked" after the install. I asked my friend why and he said that Gentoo offers you more of a choice or more control or something like that. At any rate, he wasn't able to explain it very well, and so I find myself here, asking "IF (for whatever reason) I wanted to make a switch from Kubuntu to Gentoo, what would be the benefits and drawbacks of Gentoo over Kubuntu?"

Thanks.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:52 pm Post subject:

TheNewOsiris,

Welcome to gentoo. The major difference between Gentoo and the binary distros, including Kubuntu is that Gentoo is a meta-distribution. Gentoo provides a package manager (portage) and a set of scripts that describe how to build the software you choose to install. As a result, you use Gentoo to make your own distro. This means yo only get the packages you ask for and teh things needed to support them. Gentoo exposes all the controls and demands that you use them. Binary distros come preconfigured with the controls obscured.

You need to make up your own mind if these Gentoo features are benefits or drawbacks to you
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

TheNewOsiris · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 91

Thank you very much, Neddy. I certainly will give Gentoo a try one of these days. However another friend also told me that he gave up on Gentoo because it took 2 or 3 days to install KDE, Kernel, etc. Is it possible to install Gentoo in a shorter amount of time, or to at least pause the installation, shutdown the computer and continue it in the morning?

Also, compared to binary distros such as Kubuntu, I assume Gentoo also takes longer to install applications as well (such as KOffice, OOo, Konqueror, etc.) Are there any options in portage that might allow me to exclude (unneeded) components of a program so that I may increase installation speed?

Whenever there is an small update to a package in Kubuntu, it takes very little time to upgrade. However, since Gentoo compiles everything from source, does Gentoo have to recompile entire programs (such as KDE or Firefox) or does it just "patch" them?

Also, you mentioned "controls". What exactly are "controls"? And how do they benefit me in the long-run?

If I understand correctly, when you say meta-distribution, do you mean that I can swap the Linux Kernel for, say the BSD kernel or the Solaris kernel? How modular is Gentoo, in regards to Kernels?

Thanks.

timeBandit · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:21 pm Post subject:

sonicbhoc · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:26 pm Post subject:

Dude, rushing, it took me 2 days to get my system up with KDE, a full desktop, and mostly everything configured aside from Beryl which I didn't even hear about until a week after.

However, I'd never go back to a binary distro. All good things require patience and skill, which is why Windows does, and will continue to, suck. Here is my definitive list on why Gentoo is awesome:

1. Configurability. YOU CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING. Literally. There isn't anything that you can't add, strip, remove, kill, or break on the system. You own it. You don't use mysql? why, then, should you have to install it to support a program like Amarok that has optional support for it? Why should I have a kernel full of modules that doesn't support my hardware, making a huge overhead? Why should I use any icon set other than the default one? why shouldn't I? Why does, sometimes, using a terminal mess up the install and require me to run back to the graphical tools provided by my distro to fix it?

Gentoo is personal. You can configure it to be everything you want, and not to be anything you don't. It has a HUGE, STEEP learning curve, but it is entirely worth it. The warm, fuzzy feeling you get after getting a system you compiled yourself up and running is not comparable to anything else. :lol:

2. Footprint: If you keep /usr/portage/distfiles and /var/tmp/portage clean, you can save disk space by not installing support for packages you won't/can't/don't use and removing support for them in your packages.

3. Portage: Greatest package manager to ever exist, at least up until now. I haven't really dabbled with Plaudis yet, though... Anyway, if you use portage and gentoolkit, you can keep a very bleeding edge system pretty much completely stable like mine. Beryl and everything.

4. Source code: If you are a nerd or you want to learn to program, you can easily get the sources for any program you install. :lol:

5. It's MINE!: Your gentoo is yours. Configured by you, installed by you and compiled for your hardware. Very personal. Every piece of it is configurable in some way, and it's fun to mess with stuff too, just to see what different options do. But be careful...

6. Community: The community is very helpful, nice, informative and above all smart. You are very unlikely to encounter "RTFM"s and "NOOB" comments here.

That's just the reasons I can come up with in my head, too. I'm sure I can squeeze out a few more if I tried, but I think you get the point.

See ya around!
_________________
I'm too lazy to keep this stupid signature up to date, so here's something more interesting:
My friend Hetdegon can draw if you ask me.
Now using PClinuxOS on my laptop and Gentoo on my desktop and new laptop.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:27 pm Post subject:

TheNewOsiris,

The gentoo install can be paused and resumed as often as you like. There are also binaries available for the bigger packages, since not everyone has systems capable of doing the compiles.

If you start with a PC with nothing installed, the 2006.1 liveCD supports a networkless install thats all from binaries, so you can get a GUI running in a few hours. This installer is still experimential - there have been reports of it overwriting partition tables, so I woild only recommend it on a clean PC, where there is nothing to lose.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

sonicbhoc · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:31 pm Post subject:

Taking the risk of sounding like an elitist/fanboy/noob,

DO NOT USE THE INSTALLER IF YOU VALUE YOUR PARTITION TABLE.

Also, NEVER use it for your first install. You should install through the command line, and attempt to learn some stuff first.

Walk before you run!
_________________
I'm too lazy to keep this stupid signature up to date, so here's something more interesting:
My friend Hetdegon can draw if you ask me.
Now using PClinuxOS on my laptop and Gentoo on my desktop and new laptop.

TheNewOsiris · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 91

sonicbhoc · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:38 pm Post subject:

TheNewOsiris · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 91

Thanks for all your help. I will tackle the Gentoo install during the upcoming holidays (don't want to screw up my PC during exams!).
Again, thank you very much. You have been very helpful. I suspect that you will see more questions from me.

All the best.