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xsilentmurmurx
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:01 pm    Post subject: General questions about learning Gentoo vs Learning Redhat Reply with quote

Hello everyone

I have been a Gentoo user for a couple of years now and I know how to install the basic system and do a few administrative tasks here and there. I was wondering, if I was to learn the Gentoo system by reading the documentation, and practicing on a VM installation (such as VirtualBox), will it be easy for me to learn other distros as well? In other words, if I learn how to do system administration on a Gentoo system pretty well, will mastering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (for example) or Debian etc, become much more easier for me?

I was once told by someone that a good Gentoo admin could blow a Red Hat admin out of the water.

What are your thoughts about this?
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epsilon72
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Every distro is different, but learning Gentoo will certainly teach you more about Linux in general than following some graphical installer and putting Ubuntu or Mint on your machine. Will it make you learn other distros much much much faster? No. Will it make learning other distros slightly easier? Yes.
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phajdan.jr
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gentoo exposes you to many more system internals and knowledge about them, so it makes you learn things more deeply.

Note though that e.g. SELinux is a big part of RedHat system administration, and on Gentoo it's optional and not used by default.
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Kollin
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gentoo is going to spoil you at level that you'll find another distros pretty annoying :wink:
For example configs in gentoo are 99% in /etc in some other distros they are scattered all over the place (very nasty surprise for a sysadmin) 8)
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bigbangnet
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gentoo can make man cry.
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epsilon72
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gentoo is real man's distro. Arch is for ADD teens. Ubuntu is for babies :P
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nrezinorn
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

phajdan.jr wrote:
Gentoo exposes you to many more system internals and knowledge about them, so it makes you learn things more deeply.

Note though that e.g. SELinux is a big part of RedHat system administration, and on Gentoo it's optional and not used by default.


+1 to this.

I learned Linux with Gentoo and fell into a Sysadmin Career. Primarily CentOS, but knowing the basics from Gentoo helped.
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nomilieu
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

epsilon72 wrote:
Gentoo is real man's distro. Arch is for ADD teens. Ubuntu is for babies :P

Nah, Arch isn't for teens; it's for people without a lot of time.
Gentoo sucks on flash drives, for example, as where Arch does not.

My job would be very difficult without an Arch stick in my pocket.
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Jaglover
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

nomilieu wrote:
epsilon72 wrote:
Gentoo is real man's distro. Arch is for ADD teens. Ubuntu is for babies :P

Nah, Arch isn't for teens; it's for people without a lot of time.
Gentoo sucks on flash drives, for example, as where Arch does not.

My job would be very difficult without an Arch stick in my pocket.

Basically you are saying you suck, because Gentoo is a DIY Linux and will be only as good as you are.
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epsilon72
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Uh oh, what have I done? Flame war approaching! 8O
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disi
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Every distro has it's own scripts and that is the main difference?

eselect rc = chkconfig, service
emerge = rpm, yum, apt-get etc.
genkernel = install the preconfigured binary kernel

syslog or a similar logger is on most systems default

All the normal binutils are the same, like editors or file system operations cp, mv, ln etc.
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nomilieu
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 3:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jaglover wrote:
Basically you are saying you suck, because Gentoo is a DIY Linux and will be only as good as you are.

It's source-based and you (by default) have to install it manually.
That makes it not ideal for keeping on a usb stick, which is not to say you can't do it.
I merely think a binary distro would suck less for that specific purpose, as Gentoo would require more time and effort, which is not a luxury I generally have when I'm at work.
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