Why Gentoo and not Mandrake or SuSE?

Guest

Hi!
I have been a Gentoo user for 4 days now. I am not a very experienced Linux user but used Red Hat Mandrake and SuSE quite extensively. Can someone tell me what is the main advantage that I am using Gentoo now? Installing Gentoo is quite a pain in the ass. Emerging packages takes "slightly longer than forever" as the KDE installation guide says. I appreciate the process that now I understand much better how Linux is built up. But at the end of the day I am at the same position as with the other distros, having KDE, Opera, Apache.... and all the good stuff. So what's the fuss is all about? It took me 4 tries to install X and KDE because of certain errors. Other distros install them usually without a hick-up. That's true that I use binaries with other diistros and I compile the full stuff for myself. But please someone explain to me why it is better to compile the whole stuff for myself? Will it be faster? Will I save space because I only install what I need? When a 60 GB HD is quite cheap I would not find that argument valid.

Faffy

Guest · Posted: Sat May 18, 2002 10:36 am Post subject:

Hello!

Compiling the whole stuff yourself is not unconditionally better. It *could* be better if you are (for whatever reason) unhappy with the packages from other Distributions (reasons can be things like: They don't use that special compiler flag bla bla, they don't compile my favourite app with bla support, they put file bla into directory bla and not where it IMHO should be, they don't support my favourite app at all, they don't match my religious fanatism, a developer of them is as thick as two short planks, etc.). But you can also modify some other distro (manny companies follow that way). Many roads lead to Rome.

For the speed increase, I have a very fast computer and the increase I got with Gentoo is on average below my perception (well most of the time. I can always recompile critical and worthwile packages with every other disto around; there are not too many of those packages).

If you are satisfied with some other Distribution and are happy with it, well then there is absolutly no/little point in installing Gentoo. The much heard reason 'you learn more about all things Linux' is not valid for me because I can also learn all that stuff with every other disto on this planet (Yes, for example it's really possible to configure Grub by reading the manual and doing it by hand, you don't have to use drakboot and your mouse or something).

Eventually you must decide for yourself if the dramatically increassed install time is worth it for you. It may for some people, it may be not for others. Thats the nice thing about choice. You can choose the distro which is most suitable for you.

One last word on disadvantages. The thing I miss most in Gentoo are all those thousands of patches big Distributions like Redhat or Mandrake utilizise. For example the Mandrake Cooker gcc 3.1 src rpm contains two dozen of patches which fix several compiler bugs (there was once a article of Robbins which complained about all those patches which never got upstream). But I also understand that Gentoo doesn't have 50 full time developers like other companies who could spawn new patches by the hour.

So my point is: There is no 'best' distribution. You must pick the one which is best for you. You already have expieriences with Redhat, Mandrake, Suse, and now Gentoo. See yourself if there is something in Gentoo with which your daily work get done better/faster then those other distributions. If you are still clueless now after four days of using Gentoo, well then it could very possibly be that Gentoo gives YOU no big advantage over those other distributions.

Cheers,
Andreas

huw · Apprentice Joined: 13 May 2002 Posts: 220 Location: UK

Speed, only what you want installed and customised how you want and greater knowledge of linux are all advantages of Gentoo. But if after building a complete, fully functioning, operating system, fully optomised for your machine from source code doesn't give you a warm feeling of satisfaction, then maybe you just aren't quite geeky enough for gentoo :wink:

katakombi · n00b Joined: 03 May 2002 Posts: 27

you are able to use the latest software
i consider this a great pro of gentoo.

Compiling takes its time, that's right, but most annoying are the several broken packages which hinder you to do "emerge someFatApp" and let the computer work a-day-and-a-night just to compile the stuff.

i think a user won't notice an upspeed, but configuring a mandrake or a redhat distro is...lets say...a pain in the ass, too.
You ever tried to update your RPM-based system or just wanted to remove an application? Less trouble in using portage, i assume!

All in all, enough to prove gentoo outmatches most distros except Debian, in my opinion,

toi-toi-toi
katakombi >8^)

Guest · Posted: Sat May 18, 2002 11:22 am Post subject:

Don't get me wrong!
It gives me huge satisfaction to see that I could build up a kde workstation from scratch. Watching the "matrix-screensaver" during compilation gives me a warm buzz

, especially when it finishes without problem.
However, as Katakombi said, it is very annoying when after 3 hours compilation you get an error message, which most of the time I can not even comprehend.
I think I need to familiarize myself with the portage system to appreciate Gentoo more.

Faffy

PS: I can't post under my user name. the forum says that my user name is already taken. It is very annoying.

sidesh0w · n00b Joined: 02 May 2002 Posts: 14

I am too a fairly new linux user and I found that Gentoo allows me to control what is going on with my system. I have tried RedHat, Slackware and a few of the other LFS-based distributions (CRUX, LRS, Beehive and Peanut) and found that Gentoo was the easiest to install new packages. Redhat installs alot of "stuff" that I really didnt need (almost 1 gig worth of packages) and the others were tough to configure.

Im hooked on Gentoo now!!!

rommel · Posted: Sat May 18, 2002 8:02 pm Post subject:

i think if your really new to linux gentoo makes a bit of sense to use...because it will 'break' you in as to some of the more behind the scenes config files that get lost in bigger distros....by having to do more you will learn more.....it maybe a bit overwhelming at first but i think in the end its better and you end up with just what you want and not alot of things you'll never use..(relatively speaking of corse, kde is kde no matter the distro)
i am trying FreeBSD also...which is even less user friendly then gentoo...lol...but it makes you read alot which is always a good thing.

ciao

FINITE · Guru Joined: 10 May 2002 Posts: 449

I too am really new to linux. Gentoo is thus far my favorite. The install was a bitch though, espescially the partitioning section because instead of seeing the size of your drive in MB or KB you get sectors and cylinders or something which I have no idea how to convert to MB or KB (don't think you can really). Whatever that fdisk program is it needs to be changed to something a bit more user friendly.

However after getting gentoo installed and working with kde and fluxbox and in the process learning alot about the file system and how to really get in there and MAKE changes to things I would have to say that I appreciate gentoo more than anyother dist I have used to this point (just mandrake and redhat).

DArtagnan · Posted: Sat May 18, 2002 9:54 pm Post subject: News paper

God damn guys,
We need to publish all these words to news papers :-)

I'm cryng and i can't stop it...hahaha

What a big story this Gentoo can be, and WE can make it alive.
pacman
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MACPRO machine...

Guest · Posted: Sat May 18, 2002 10:57 pm Post subject:

I've used RedHat 6.2 Redhat 7.2 mandake 8.2 and Slackware 8.0.
Tryed getnoo.. and Now Im totaly in *love* with gentoo

klieber · Posted: Sun May 19, 2002 12:15 am Post subject:

TheWart · Posted: Sun May 19, 2002 4:52 am Post subject:

Maybe someone has already said this, but I enjoy Gentoo b/c the packages are up to date, within hours of the updates coming out.
_________________
Face it, we are all noobs.

On the box it said it was designed for Win XP or better, so why won't it work with Linux?

Guest · Guest

Gentoo's additional patches to the 2.4.19 kernel give a noticable speed boost, and using it conviced me to use XFS, something that wasn't easily available for RedHat. After having *everything* compiled for i686, using the XFS filesystem, and the patched kernel, I notice a major speed increase, and I like it.

My system just feels ... cleaner with Gentoo than Mandrake or Redhat.

And, everytime I'd install an icon pack in KDE3 on Mandrake and Redhat, it'd disappear after I logged off. Not so in Gentoo.

MaRTiaN · Posted: Sun May 19, 2002 6:30 am Post subject:

gentoo feels "snappier" and more responsive for me compared to mandrake and redhat. Its also nice knowing what goes on your system. Redhats package selection doesn't tell you everything it installs.
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AutoBot · l33t Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Posts: 968 Location: Usually Out

shakti · Guru Joined: 15 May 2002 Posts: 358 Location: omnipresent

I definatly can see a speed increase, even my sys is a Athlon 1700+ with 256ddr. Specially in KDE start up, mozilla and open office start up. The above mentioned word "SNAPIER" seems apropiate. Then comparing this to mandrake where KDE3 was a pain in the ass to get going... A couple of weeks ago i dual booted Mandrake / Win2k now i have only gentoo on here.....

MacMasta · Posted: Wed May 22, 2002 6:06 am Post subject: Lemme tell you about "Snappy"

Right, my current setup has Gentoo in a vmware virtual machine in my debian install.
Gentoo is running gentoo-sources-2.4.19-r5 with pre-emptive and 0(1) compiled in, on xfs.
Machine is an athlon xp 1600+, 512 ram. Gentoo has 128 dedicated to it.
Both systems run windowmaker.
Gentoo can minimize an xterm noticeably faster than debian can.
Let me say that again: Gentoo, running inside a virtual machine on debian can do some things faster than the host machine can.

Spiffy, huh?

(Now, I'm going to go find those patches for my 2.4.19-pre1 kernel for the debian box)

~Mac~

AutoBot · l33t Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Posts: 968 Location: Usually Out

MacMasta · Posted: Thu May 23, 2002 6:46 am Post subject: Heh heh heh

That's what I'm going to do with my new laptop that's coming in about 5 days...
Then I'm going to buy a new case, tear my raid in half, put gentoo on the lappy and the desk, and throw debian on the server.

So there!
:-P

~Mac~

muzzy · Guest