Gentoo is great, but there have been problems...

[Jessehk]

I recently replaced Ubuntu with Gentoo, and I must say, I have been extremely impressed.

Here are the reasons:

• FANTASTIC documentation. I really have to give a big thank-you everyone for maintaining it.
• Great community. Thanks to all of you who have helped me out and worked me through the installation.
• Nothing is hidden. I love that if I want to fiddle, Gentoo doesn't prevent me. It's fantastic and I would encourage other distributions to be more open.
• Compiling sources. Perhaps it's not rational, but compiling from source is just a lot of fun. :p
• Learning. I have learned quite a bit and I'm much more confident with my computer now.

Now, despite the benefits of Gentoo, I am probably going back to Ubuntu.
My main complaint is that about 4 or 5 packages marked as stable were anything but. There were syntax errors in ebuilds, segmentation faults in major applications (Gaim segfaulted on x86, but ~86 was fine. That's just wrong.), and I guess I'm just not in the mood right now. Who knows, it might be my fault (and if it is, I take full responsibility). I just get annoyed when a stable version of gconfmm (2.12.0) fails on what looks like a syntax error.

Believe me, I don't have a problem with the complexity of Gentoo. I enjoyed the manual installation using the handbook. I was prepared for the problems that I was told existed, and everything worked out.

My problem is that things that were supposed to be stable were not, and that's why I'm switching (for now, at least). In conclusion, keep up the good work because aside from that one issue I experienced, Gentoo is awesome.

[steveb]

I think we all here in the forum accept your reasons and wish you good luck with the other distro.

[sonicbhoc]

I recently replaced Ubuntu with Gentoo, and I must say, I have been extremely impressed.

Here are the reasons:

• FANTASTIC documentation. I really have to give a big thank-you everyone for maintaining it.
• Great community. Thanks to all of you who have helped me out and worked me through the installation.
• Nothing is hidden. I love that if I want to fiddle, Gentoo doesn't prevent me. It's fantastic and I would encourage other distributions to be more open.
• Compiling sources. Perhaps it's not rational, but compiling from source is just a lot of fun. :p
• Learning. I have learned quite a bit and I'm much more confident with my computer now.

Now, despite the benefits of Gentoo, I am probably going back to Ubuntu.
My main complaint is that about 4 or 5 packages marked as stable were anything but. There were syntax errors in ebuilds, segmentation faults in major applications (Gaim segfaulted on x86, but ~86 was fine. That's just wrong.), and I guess I'm just not in the mood right now. Who knows, it might be my fault (and if it is, I take full responsibility). I just get annoyed when a stable version of gconfmm (2.12.0) fails on what looks like a syntax error.

Believe me, I don't have a problem with the complexity of Gentoo. I enjoyed the manual installation using the handbook. I was prepared for the problems that I was told existed, and everything worked out.

My problem is that things that were supposed to be stable were not, and that's why I'm switching (for now, at least). In conclusion, keep up the good work because aside from that one issue I experienced, Gentoo is awesome.

I can confirm that ~x86 > x86. The only package that really broke was CUPS, but then again pretty much everyone else had problems with that too

[Enverex]

You can't win with the "arch" issues. If the x86 one is broken people tell you to use the ~x86 one, if that one doesn't work people shout at you and tell you you shouldn't expect it to work because it's ~

[Gergan Penkov]

You can't win with the "arch" issues. If the x86 one is broken people tell you to use the ~x86 one, if that one doesn't work people shout at you and tell you you shouldn't expect it to work because it's ~

the problem is that you could not mix and match stable and testing and running pure testing system could cause serious problems, rare but it happens and if the user is not proficient enough - this means calamity
If something does not emerge, this does not automatically mean that there is a serious problem, one could wait two-three days (probably file a bug) and hope that the problem will be fixed, or even better try to fix it him/herself and post it on bugzilla - this is how the community distibutions work

[madisonicus]

If you're looking for perfection, you certainly wont find it here... or well, anywhere. Since everyone's Gentoo will be substantially different (customization being the Gentoo watchword) it is impossible to predict all configurations. Compiling from source is also far riskier than downloading binaries. Consequently, some perfectly good ebuilds will fail. Therefore, Gentoo does take some tweaking to get working. That's part of the bargain. However, it's also part of the benefit: you will learn why things go wrong and how to fix them.

WRT to Ubuntu... I'm sure you've noticed several threads on these boards and others detailing unsatisfactory experiences with it too. So, rather than point out that each distro at different times will do some things better than others will. Either way, it's all about choice, so I hope you find something that meets your needs.

If you decide to stay with Gentoo, it's very likely that the community would be able to work you through the problems you ran into.

GL,
m

[Enverex]

You can't win with the "arch" issues. If the x86 one is broken people tell you to use the ~x86 one, if that one doesn't work people shout at you and tell you you shouldn't expect it to work because it's ~

the problem is that you could not mix and match stable and testing and running pure testing system could cause serious problems, rare but it happens and if the user is not proficient enough - this means calamity
If something does not emerge, this does not automatically mean that there is a serious problem, one could wait two-three days (probably file a bug) and hope that the problem will be fixed, or even better try to fix it him/herself and post it on bugzilla - this is how the community distibutions work

I gave up on that after waiting months and months for things that were blocking multiple other packages from installing. Just can't win.

[Jessehk]

If you decide to stay with Gentoo, it's very likely that the community would be able to work you through the problems you ran into.

GL,
m

This is the gconfmm issue (which was posted before this thread):
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-52 ... ight-.html

And my other posts indicate the other threads I have created asking for support. Don't get me wrong -- this is the best, most helpful community I have ever encountered. I just don't want to have to ask for help when installing supposedly stable ebuilds.

I am not trying to be rude in any way, so please excuse me if it seems that I am.

I've reinstalled Ubuntu, but It's very likely I'll try Gentoo again in the near future.

[timeBandit]

Don't get me wrong -- this is the best, most helpful community I have ever encountered. I just don't want to have to ask for help when installing supposedly stable ebuilds.

I am not trying to be rude in any way, so please excuse me if it seems that I am.

Nothing to excuse, you're fine.
In the same vein, let me introduce you to a truism of software: "There is always one more bug."

The thing about "stable" is, it doesn't mean a package or its ebuild is certified bug-free. It implies a package has been sufficiently tested, and few enough bugs reported in testing, that the maintainer(s) believe it will work for the majority of people who install it. Note the subjectivity.

The trouble is, like snowflakes absolutely no two Gentoo installations are identical (except mirrored installs). It's unfortunate and irksome when several stable packages break at once, but most often that's just probability thumbing its nose at you.

[alexandervdm]

If you decide to stay with Gentoo, it's very likely that the community would be able to work you through the problems you ran into.

GL,
m

And my other posts indicate the other threads I have created asking for support. Don't get me wrong -- this is the best, most helpful community I have ever encountered.

As a fellow new Gentoo user, I'd like to second that. Getting Gentoo and all the packages I use to run properly has been a difficult but also very learnful experience, and I can't emphasize enough how many times these community forums have been the solution to the problems I encountered on the way.

[Enverex]

Other reasons for my decline of like for Gentoo: http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=160867

[Jessehk]

The bugfix for my gconfmm issue has been resolved...in the unstable branch.

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=160304

It seems to me that a "stable" ebuild has a known build error that is only fixed in the unstable version.
Am I misunderstanding the situation? That just seems wrong.

[steveL]

It seems to me that a "stable" ebuild has a known build error that is only fixed in the unstable version.
Am I misunderstanding the situation? That just seems wrong.

`Unstable' means the ebuild is newer. I agree that it'd be good to sort out the ebuild in `stable' in the sense that this is the recommended software for the OS. Can you patch it?

[gerard27]

I don't think you'll ever find a distro that will run every program
you might need without any problems or bugs.
Even Mico$oft OS has lots of people pulling their hairs out because
of bugs.Solving problems in $toomuch's OS is a lot harder though.
Most Linux distro's use precompiled software and kernel.
I prefer to have it compiled for my hardware.
After all: programming is done by humans so there are bound to be
flaws in it.
G.

[steveL]

`Even' M$? Blimey they have more bugs than anyone, and that's nothing to do with how many people use their bloatware.