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shgadwa
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:00 am    Post subject: Thinking of going back to gentoo w/ gui... Reply with quote

I used gentoo for nearly 3 years on my 2008 toshiba satellite pro. It was the longest time that I've had a single linux distro installed without reinstalling. Any problems that I had (usually problems I created), I was able to fix. Sometimes on my own, other times with you guy's help and it has always been a learning process for me.

Early last year I was having extreme difficulties updating my system. It had sat for a few months and there was a couple hundred packages that needed to be updated. There were some major changes to the system. Python was being upgraded to 3.2, and I was having huge problems. Blocked packages, packages that could not be installed at the same time, packages that conflicted with other packages, etc. etc. It was a huge pain. Once I finally got it updated, my hard drive started having problems with bad blocks. Since then I've put the laptop on the shelf and have not touched it.

Now I've got a newer laptop, a toshiba satellite 64bit. I use windows 7, but would like to dual boot with linux. I am seriously thinking of going back to gentoo. Its what I used. For the most part, I loved gentoo. There was so much I could do with it, it was fast, easily configurable, etc. I'm wondering... were my problems because of the way that I wanted compiz-fusion and certain other packages which are ~x86? Would all my problems have gone away if I religiously stayed stable? Or do you think maybe I should keep gentoo for a server and use something else like Arch linux or something?
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chithanh
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 2:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Most blockers can be avoided by not mixing stable and unstable parts of a desktop environment or toolkit (qt is especially unforgiving). Otherwise, versioned blockers can usually be solved by upgrading past the blocking version. If you run an unstable system you will see some breakage from time to time, but that's the price for living on the bleeding edge.

Note that compiz is on its way out because no Gentoo developer wants to maintain it.
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shgadwa
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 2:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chithanh wrote:

Note that compiz is on its way out because no Gentoo developer wants to maintain it.

I've heard that. I'm starting to think that perhaps gentoo is best left without a gui, as a server. And its quite powerful that way.

When I was running a gui, I was always fixing things, always changing things, always upgrading. I've been getting busier and busier and there comes a time when you have to decide whether you want to spend more time working on other people's computers and networks ($$$), or spend your time fixing your own computer.
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Chiitoo
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 3:51 am    Post subject: ><)))°r Reply with quote

Just some quick, tired, and sleepy thoughts here...

I have not used Gnome nor Compiz at all (yet, might still try at some point), save for my first Linux experiment with an Ubuntu install that didn't really go anywhere.
Layer, a bit ove a year ago from now, I finally installed Gentoo into my main computer, and I have been using KDE since, and I have not really used Windows since, which I used until then about 10 or so years.

So I could not even imagine to say that Gentoo is not for desktop use.
Not in the slightest. It may, at times, take more work than some other Operating Systems do, or distributions likewise, but I have not ever experienced any major breakage and I have even grown a bit bored because of it, making me want to install on another computer (or create a Virtual Machine, which I recently did) to try out new things.

Maybe I am lucky in that things do not break, or maybe Gentoo is my niche, but I can hardly believe the latter is the case.
Guess I have just been lucky, but no, Gentoo definitely should not be seen as unfit for a desktop, all-day use, which includes gaming (yeah, I even play my games with it). Sure, the windows games run better when run under/over\between and via windoze, but given I have 6 CPU-cores and an nVidia GTX275-based graphics card, I can run even modern games more than acceptably well, and the hardware is hardly impressive with today's standards.

Also do not forget that Gnome and KDE are not the only Desktop Environments with fancy candy out there.
You might want to look into Enlightenment for one, as it is quite the 'build what you want' as I see it. Including the candy, if you want it.


Either way, I should stop babbling now, as I said, I am tired and should be sleeping right now, probably.
Just some quick thoughts ! !! !
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asturm
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

shgadwa wrote:
chithanh wrote:

Note that compiz is on its way out because no Gentoo developer wants to maintain it.

I've heard that. I'm starting to think that perhaps gentoo is best left without a gui, as a server. And its quite powerful that way.

Compiz is on death row in other distros too because it has turned into an unmaintained POS.
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dol-sen
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Before you decide to NOT install gentoo again, try out the livedvd. The sticky forum thread is right here in Gentoo-Chat. You can see how it runs on your laptop, requires no permanent install, can even install software via emerge. It also can be made persistent so newly installed software, your data is available the next time you boot into it. It has gnome3 kde4, xfce,...
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shgadwa
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

genstorm wrote:
shgadwa wrote:
chithanh wrote:

Note that compiz is on its way out because no Gentoo developer wants to maintain it.

I've heard that. I'm starting to think that perhaps gentoo is best left without a gui, as a server. And its quite powerful that way.

Compiz is on death row in other distros too because it has turned into an unmaintained POS.

Well, you guys are really tempting me to go back to gentoo, and stay on stable. As for compiz, are there any alternatives?

I don't NEED fancy eye candy. I mostly used compiz because it made me work more efficiently, having multiple windows and being able to quickly swap out windows, applications, etc. Though I admit, I also used it because I liked to brag.

I recently checked out a more modern version of KDE and I actually liked it. It wasn't bad. Though in the past my main reason for not using KDE was that it hogged resources. Though I would wonder how much better gnome is.
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Ant P.
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

KDE is ok, it's what I'm using now, but it still doesn't have Compiz's "Put" plugin ;)
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gorkypl
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gentoo is a rolling-release distro and it does not like to be unupdated for a long time. As simple as that.

If you think compiz made your work efficient I suggest you to try a tiling WM - I think that my productivity gained much more from switching to tiling full-time then from upgrading from a ten years old Athlon 2500+ to a brand new Phenom with 16GB of RAM.
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