My first post from my Gentoo box!

[thecguy]

I'm tickled pink to be posting to the forum from Konqueror. It's been a long time coming. This little project has been going on for about ten days now, and I've been biting my tongue (or fingertips) to keep fom posting questions in this forum that have already been asked, or are answered elsewhere in the Gentoo documentation, or other general Linux docs.
Following, you will find my opinions and thoughts about Gentoo Linux. If you're not interested, don't waste any more time reading here, there are many more informative posts in this forum.
Gentoo for Linux Newbies: unless you are a seasoned programmer, and have the patience of Job, I recommend looking elsewhere for your first Linux distro. I started tinkering with Linux with Mandrake 5.3, around 4 years ago. If you're wanting to try Linux, look for a Mandrake8.x iso or even ELX. They are easy to install and configure, mainly because the install programs take control and make the decisions for you.
I did not intend for this to be easy for me from the beginning. I chose to install on a laptop, an unsupported laptop, no less, an AMS Roadster. Shoot, finding Winbloze support for this little box is a pia! But, after recompiling the kernel about half a dozen times, reading the install docs and install posts in this forum numerous times, I have a working system, that I am proud of, because I made it work. I have a general understanding of how the software works, because I manipulated, edited, coaxed, begged and pleaded, beat and banged, the configuration files on this particular computer, to get it to work. The feeling of satisfaction that that gives me makes all the time and effort I put into the project worthwhile. your milage may vary.
I'm no Linux guru mind you. I make my living repairing, building, and reconfiguring Windows computers. I became so frustrated with the offerings from M$, I decided to look elswhere for software to do things I need done. I'm a one guy shop, and I just can't afford to purchase a proprietary program every time I need to do a certain job on a certain system. The open source community turned out to be my savior.
Lately, I've become disillusioned with the major distributors of the Linux kernel, and built my webserver on FreeBSD. It's great, and rock solid, but I'm much more comfortable with SystemV, than BSD. As far as M$ goes, I run Windows XP Pro on my desktop, and consider it to be a usable, stable OS.
These are the reasons I was so excited to see Gentoo, and decided to give it a try. An opporutnity to roll my own Linux, on my own box, on my own time just seemed too good to be true. And so far so good. There is no way a generic Linux Distro would run this fast on a little K-62 380 and 96 megs of RAM!
Anyway, enough rambling! A big thanks goes out to all the developers of Gentoo, and to all the moderators and posters at this forum! Linux is back on my good side! Thanks again to all the people that made this happen! Gentoo rocks!
And for everyone thinking of giving Gentoo a try: RTFM and don't give up!
Chris Wilson
www.thecomputerguystore.com
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"It's O.K., man. If there's one thing I know, it's how to drive when I'm stoned. It's like you know your perspective's f*cked, so ya just gotta let your hands work the controls as if you're straight."

[jay]

This should go into the "Praise" section....
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[JefP@@]

jeez

[DArtagnan]

Believe it or not but I like what you wrote in here and i feel exactly like you.
You almost made me cry
Welcome to real world.

P.S.
My friend said that Linux is like school, you learn new stuff every day but you never get graduate....its true.
Voicu Liviu
Another Gentoo User...this means A.G.U.
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All for one and one for All
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MACPRO machine...