Where does Gentoo outrun other distributions?

jabol · Apprentice Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 269

Hi,
I just recently came upon yet next point, where I believe Gentoo outruns all other Linux distributions and even all other systems I know (and this includes Windows, Solaris and quite a few Linuxes). So I was just wandering what are the points you think Gentoo is best at?

As for what I found out:
* Filesystem layout, as described in ebuild FAQ. It's just great. You always know where to find things. 3-rd party and binary software goes into /opt, all other things into /usr. It's just unbelievable how messy some systems are about system layouts. Maybe it's because Gentoo is to be managed by a human, not programs, so it needs to be clean. Nevertheless it's just better if the filesystem layout is somehow thoughtful.
* Great /etc/env.d idea.
* runlevels, although this is kind of implemented in most systems by /etc/rc.* directories. But runlevels are easier manageable.
* Portage, but I need not mention that, it's too obvious. Deb's are nice also, but I prefer source building....

Well, what else can you think of? Let's give the folks out there some reasons to switch to Gentoo.

BTW: I know there have been quite a few similar topics, but none so openly comparative.

Dr. Frankenbox · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 1:47 pm Post subject:

The /etc/init.d concept is great. When I play with any other distro, I always have a hard time figuring out how to start/stop/restart background system processes/servers/daemons. It's particularly nice to have a straightforward way to renew a DHCP lease (/etc/init.d/net.ethX restart). On other distros, you have to know which DHCP client program is being used and how to issue a renew with it.

Clete2 · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:09 pm Post subject:

numerodix · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:29 pm Post subject:

dirtyepic · Developer Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1549 Location: sk.ca

We have more cupholders.

Also we run on more hardware than any other Linux distro out there.
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jabol · Apprentice Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 269

Is Gentoo not actually the only distribution to provide not-multilib envrionment?

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 6:37 am Post subject:

I love the rc-update thing.

This is great and also the portage utilisation of package.keywords... nearly a perfect thing

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Phenax · l33t Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 965

JeliJami · Veteran Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 1083 Location: Belgium

jonnevers · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:10 am Post subject:

#1 feature: robust automatic dependency resolution throughout the entire tree.

/etc/portage/package.* is quite clever too. imo.

so, yah, portage.

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:13 am Post subject:

I don't see any distro that have a friendly /etc/portage/package.keywords except the pin priority from Debian...but not as friendly as the portage thing.
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timeBandit · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:49 am Post subject:

jabol · Apprentice Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 269

JeliJami · Veteran Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 1083 Location: Belgium

ToeiRei · l33t Joined: 03 Jan 2005 Posts: 795 Location: Austria

Gentoo is the distribution of choices. That's my reason for using it as it is so adaptive. (and there is no tool for fucking up your configs, so you're responsible for your own mistakes)
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d2_racing · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 6:04 am Post subject:

Except, that you can have some great feature to help you, like wlassistant that can get you out of hell when you configure your wifi connection from the first time.
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PanzerKanzler · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:17 am Post subject:

Gentoo is by far the easiest distro to maintain. It is always willing to help with its collection of tools, but if you want to do something yourself it will not interfere.
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Mantaar · Apprentice Joined: 17 May 2007 Posts: 219

I really appreciate the way you can have packages and libs in different slots. What's even better, though is how easy it is to switch compilers (for me it's gcc and javac) - just one command to view what you have; another to switch them. As a programmer that's really convenient for me.

And yes, configuration files are easier to manage than in other distros. Just do an

Sixtiz · n00b Joined: 09 Oct 2002 Posts: 40 Location: Australia

JeliJami · Veteran Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 1083 Location: Belgium

jabol · Apprentice Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 269

I was just testing solaris a bit. From what I've saw there, most applications (at least those bigger ones), have own directory in /usr. It's like "Program Files" in windows! I like the idea that programs actually sink into /usr, don't extend it so obviously. It's just great. No more wtf is this include/lib/bin directory! Or wtf is there no /usr/bin directory. Oh, there it is indeed, just forgot to append less to ls when looking for it (/usr should never grow bigger than so that one could be able to print it on a single *standart* console screen - signle col).

jabol · Apprentice Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 269

Gnome-Light! That is just wonderful! No Epiphany, no Totem, no Evolution! Only the packages I really like and Gnome-Core (although no such thing exists!, but someone managed to find it).

bblount · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Posts: 80

Well besides the great plusses that people have already said, I would like to add eix, eselect, and most of all gentoolkit. I love being able to list files and packages like that (equery b).

petrjanda

Aries-Belgium · Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 11:51 pm Post subject:

The greatness of Gentoo already starts with the installation. I like the handbook that describes every step very well and with the necessary explanation. Even for a Linux beginner it's quite simple to follow the guidelines. Okay, you may have some difficulty understanding some steps but you 'll manage.
The second WOW effect comes when you use portage for the first time. No more dependency hell that I had with RPMs, more packages available than other distros I used, ...

Just for fun I wanted to install OpenSUSE, the "so said" noob distro, on my computer. But I had nothing than trouble with installing. I wanted to do a net-install but when I choose that I had to enter the FTP or HTTP server by hand. On Gentoo I can just run mirror-select and it selects the download servers automatically (Gentoo/OpenSUSE 1/0). Okay, I had to search for the FTP address and found it, entered it, and started the installation. I wanted to use KDE so I choose KDE when the wizard asked me. But when I wanted to install some GTK applications through Synaptic, like GIMP and Firefox, it wanted to download and install almost whole the GNOME environment. In Gentoo I can reduce the GNOME packages by setting the USE flags (Gentoo/OpenSUSE 2/0). After booting in my installation I wanted to install the Nvidia drivers but something went wrong and I got kicked out of Xorg and got the standard Linux login. I tried to enter with the root account to edit the xorg.conf by hand but it didn't work. I couldn't login with any of the users I created. So I tried rebooting but the problem stayed. I tried to boot the rescue mode of the LiveCD but that told me he couldn't find any installation. Whenever I have problems with my Gentoo installation I can boot the LiveCD and chroot into my system (Gentoo/OpenSUSE 3/0).

Way to go Gentoo !!!
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