What distribution will *YOU* switch to?

truc · Advocate Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 3199

Probably LFS just to see if it is that hard, because sometimes when I have lot of free time, gentoo can be boring to me: it just works.

But I don't think I have enough time on my hands to try it yet :evil:

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jesso · Guru Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 397 Location: Canada

Why would I want to switch?

I am staying with gentoo. I don't believe gentoo will die.

- We have a top notch support community.
- We are in control of our own system.
- We have the best package system.
- We have great docs and wiki.
- We don't have to wait 6 months or a year to upgrade a distro.

Plus we have a faster system. I tired to crossover to kubuntu. I installed it on my same system I had gentoo. Startup time for apps was slower.

I had to come back to gentoo. With kubuntu I really didn't feel in control. I feel clean in Gentoo.

Sure it takes time to setup, but it's worth it. I do daily updates to keep trouble to a min. I have a top notch system with Gentoo.

Dan · Veteran Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Posts: 1302

psychomunky · Guru Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 337 Location: Canada

geniux · Veteran Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 1400 Location: /home

W3BMAST3R101 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Jun 2004 Posts: 197

I already moved to FreeBSD. I used Gentoo for about 4 years and it was my 2nd distro. It certainly taught me a lot and because of it I'm a linux guru. But since I'm so good at linux i must go to something completely different. :twisted:

jkoerner · Apprentice Joined: 04 Nov 2006 Posts: 270

For a UNIX system I'm happy with gentoo but beside that I do already use Plan9 more and more...

sian · Apprentice Joined: 26 Jan 2004 Posts: 288

I used Mandrake and Red Hat and was always installing new versions of distros and I had to wait for new versions to correct bugs or to have new apps (or newer version).

With Gentoo :
- the system is refreshed when I need. Gentoo installs only what I need on the system.
- very good documentation, wiki, forum to help resolving problems
- can recover with the install disc (what I was unable to do with other distros)
- In other distros, some binary programs did not work. In Gentoo, all is compiled and some huge programs have binaries.

I wanted to try ArchLinux, but at the time, the documentation was too light.

I never had problem that can not be solved. That is why I use Gentoo.
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Sunnz · Guru Joined: 18 Jun 2005 Posts: 370

By the time you read this, I probably already be using my new FreeBSD system.

I don't want to make another I am leaving thread, as I love portage, and the gentoo docs.

However, life must move on. FreeBSD has been a very attractive alternative, as it has port which portage originated from, and other stuff.

I want to learn new things.

But I got to say, I hate portage sometimes... it just breaks after... err... a while.

Today I have downloaded the FreeBSD ISO. I tried to install k3b and gnomebaker, which both failed!!!

I could file a bug, but meh, I'll just scp it to my Mac and burn it there... in a way, it is like my Gentoo trying its best preventing me to get on with FBSD, (almost everything works except for k3b,gnomebaker, cdrecord, growisofs.); but FBSD's daughter(OSX) saves the day!!

Anyway, still a happy Gentoo-er.

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W3BMAST3R101 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Jun 2004 Posts: 197

when you're updating your ports tree be sure to use the stable-supfile not the current. It may not have the latest packages, but you will run into breakages with the latest. It's the equivalent of ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" in your make.conf. I made that mistake when i first started, but stable is indeed that. Rock solid. When the programs become stable enough they're backported to older versions of FreeBSD which I like quite a bit. So you don't have to necessarly upgrade your system unless you want.

the w3b

Sunnz · Guru Joined: 18 Jun 2005 Posts: 370

What's a subfile? (Have only just installed FreeBSD.)

(Maybe we shall continue in PM to avoid hijacking topics.)
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W3BMAST3R101 · Apprentice Joined: 19 Jun 2004 Posts: 197

supfile is what is used to allow you to sync to a particular tree (stables vs current)
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html
this will tell you how to update your ports tree
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports-using.html

and here is the general handbook -- very good read. Some areas don't have much info, but if you know Gentoo then it shouldn't be too hard :-P

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/

the w3b

Sunnz · Guru Joined: 18 Jun 2005 Posts: 370

Ohh thanks dude.

I have a hard copy of the handbook, just following it through in order so I am not up to those parts yet... maybe I shall skim some parts.
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Kasumi_Ninja · Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 2:33 pm Post subject:

FreeBSD 6.1 just frooze after a simple shutdown command:

Sunnz · Guru Joined: 18 Jun 2005 Posts: 370

I don't think it frozen in the sense you are thinking of, it is just that it doesn't turns off the computer after it "shut down".

But yea, I could be wrong, as I only have installed FBSD on Christmas and haven't used it yet. (Need to mount a XFS partition in order to get my network information...)

However I hope there is a way (a flag) so shutdown turns off the computer after it shuts down.
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Kasumi_Ninja · Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 4:51 pm Post subject:

Kasumi_Ninja · Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 6:28 pm Post subject:

Most Linux distro's perform well. It when you try to do something that wasn't envisioned by the developers the problems begin. For example.

-Installing software from source that is not in apt repositories is a frustrating experience in Debian.
-Configuring a monitor that doesn't work is a daunting task in openSUSE (X -configure and xorgconfig doesn't work the way it should)
-Getting a working DHCP connection on large university network is impossible on, lots of Linux distro's. Only PCLinux and Gentoo worked.

To summarize, every distro has it's merits but not every distro has a fix. I still find Gentoo time and time again the only distribution to perform reliably umder various circumstances.
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Dralnu · Veteran Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 1919

Richardo · Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:27 pm Post subject:

Fedora all the way..
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potatoface · Guru Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 542 Location: ::7F00:1

i have the same opinion as jesso (i tried slackware, suse, mandrake before)
i run it for 4 years now and i am quite happy with it :lol:

i dont think that i switch my distro in the near future...

regards,
potatoface
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Kasumi_Ninja · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 1:25 am Post subject:

micr0c0sm · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 3:44 am Post subject:

Sunnz · Guru Joined: 18 Jun 2005 Posts: 370

Dieter@be · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 3:36 pm Post subject:

well after reading this 9 page long thread i don't think going in depth about my thoughts is worth it because it is all been said before, so i'll keep it short.

i have a gentoo server (since 1yr or so) and a gentoo workstation (since 2 yrs or so), i've had some issues on the WS (not with xorg or gcc, i followed the guides and all went well, but more with breaking packages, especially *after* revdep-rebuilding everything that was needed), but it doesn't make me want to change. yes gentoo could use a better/rewritten package manager, yes there are some other issues that could use attention, but overall, gentoo is a OS that is very well suited for its intended audience, that's why i keep it. i never really used any linux/bsd-based OS before gentoo, so it was pretty hard in the beginning, but i wanted to learn about linux, and i still want to learn, so gentoo will stay.

On the other hand, i tried Arch Linux some time ago on a laptop that really didn't have the performance to suit a gentoo-lifestyle, and i like that distro too. i didn't have much time to experiment with it, but i think it is very base, very simple, but also very flexible and powerfull (eg the ability to create both source-based or binary packages, and sharing them with the community), so i'll probably put this on computers that are slow and don't have access to my distcc network ;-)

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Kasumi_Ninja · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject:

Another very import issue is security:

-Debian only provides security updates for it's main apt repository (en to some extent Etch main)
-openSUSE / Fedora / Mandriva requires to install third party repositories, with no official security support. (I think the same goes
for Ubuntu).

With Gentoo everything comes in a very complete repository with no real need (dvd, mp3, flash, java all is working out of the box) for a overlay
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