Gentoo Forums

In Gentoo, every package is compiled from source, rather than binary distros (almost all else), which have been pre-compiled.

Building from source may take longer, but you have the options to compile only what you want, compile with more optimizations for your computer, etc.

poly-p man

In fact, that's why I like Gentoo, it's all about choices.

I picked it because the other distros I found lacking decent support. I might run into a once in a while problem with gentoo on that then I go to the mailing lists . But I like it because I have mroe control over my system. And even though it takes forever for certain packages to install *cough*gnome* *cough*openoffice*cough* to get finish I know in the end it will be awesome. And I've never had a problem really with gentoo unless its on my own fault. Which I can say is perfect. And I get everything I need right then and there. Portage is great. Too bad I wish the ebuild document tutorial was more better written though for n00bies. It's becoming more stable in my notion(sp?). And I just removed windows from my computer. And made gentoo my main system. I wanna see Gentoo/FBSD become more stable for me to switch to.

I've got a real old laptop that I use for my 'network access workstation' (650mhz Celeron w/192MB ram).

Gentoo was the lightest distro I found that had the functionality that I needed (DSL was missing a couple of important packages for my needs).

And with Fluxbox, Gentoo runs really good on this machine. I basically use it just for SSH, web browsing, e-mail, VPN, remote desktop, and reading PDFs. I also have a music library on the thing so that when I'm away from my abode I can keep myself sane.

Plus, it had been a few years since I had messed with Linux, and getting my hands dirty with Gentoo refreshed my knowledge of Linux and how it works.

fwiw

D

gentoo runs very nice, portage heres better than freebsd portage now , lol

because I am smart enough to use it

d2_racing wrote:In fact, that's why I like Gentoo, it's all about empowerment.

fixed

++

(that's what the devs say), and yes, it allows me to do everything I need to, which is great

with windows it was the other way around

dhodgeh wrote:Gentoo was the lightest distro I found that had the functionality that I needed (DSL was missing a couple of important packages for my needs).

Seconded.

I also run Gentoo on my slowest machine... actually I run Gentoo on all my machines....

So many great responses here, hey Linux is great!!!
My first experience with linux was an install of the current version of Red Hat (ver 7.2). Since then I've messed around with a lot of distributions, some for a long time, some not so much. My first experience with Gentoo eventually resulted in a sucessful stage1 install of 2004.1, I think I still have the manual I printed. I first looked at Gentoo for the same reason I ran Slackware, because I read that you would learn a lot about linux using it.

I have a wife and two teenage daughters, and Windoze has not been allowed in our house for about 5 years. Despite the fact that Gentoo appeals to my inner need to tinker and tweak, I kept trying distributions that I thought would be easier to maintain and provide all the things that high school teenagers and working moms want/need in an operating system. Ok, so some distributions I've tried just because they seemed cool (Puppy Linux, come on, how can you not try it?? ).

The biggest single reason I kept coming back to Gentoo, and why it has been my main distribution for some time now (ok, I still have one machine running Ubuntu) is that Gentoo is the only distribution that always provided a Gentoo way to do anything I have wanted to do with a computer. Everytime I want to do something, or run a particular program, or use a particular piece of hardware (old or new) I've been able to do it "the Gentoo Way" without going out and finding someone else's hack, or going to someone elses repository, etc.

I also really like the whole "fix the system" philosophy as apposed to re-installing.

I look forward to using Gentoo for many years to come...

one word: customizability

thats one of the best things about gentoo, or at least one of my fav things about it.

I chose Gentoo Simply for the customization. The ability to have every software on the computer compiled to your specifications. That equals stability. I haven't formated in over a year. I have never done this before with any other distro.

soccrstar wrote:... That equals stability. I haven't formated in over a year. I have never done this before with any other distro.

++
My Gentoo computer has been running since November 2005. I have never been able to keep a distro running that long without upgrade problems.

-peter

My #1 reason was:
Because LFS/BLFS is too hard to maintain.

Why not a binary distro like Red Hat?

It's like going to a burger bar and asking for a plain burger and they put tomato on it. When you complain they say, "That's just the way it comes" and point to the poster of the burger on the wall. "Can I remove the tomato?", "Not without removing the bread too.", "Why?", "Because the tomato has soaked into the bed.", "Grrr..."... 2 minutes later. "I removed the tomato anyway and the burger fell out, can I fix this?", "No that is not a supported operation." - REINSTALL

I want 18" rims on my car. However our car is compiled to only support 17" rims.

Why is it compiled for i386? "So that 386 users can install it for a firewall.", "I don't want a firewall I want a desktop.", "Tough!"

"I can't get a kernel to compile on this distro that supports my hardware, the stock kernel works, why?", "Because our kernel is tinkered with to match the tinkering we do on all the packages. You have to use out kernel.", "You don't have the kernel I want..." "Tough."

"As suggested on the fora I upgraded package X, now I get "cannot find library Y", why?"

I would say that Gentoo has at times tinkered with things a little too far for me and genuinely pissed me off, but I can still live with it, or over rule it.

'cuz upgrading other distros caused me SO MUCH grief making sure that binaries had support for x y and z. With gentoo, I know what's in the binaries I create.

Furthermore whatever question I have is usually answered in the gentoo forums. (regardless of what I'm looking for....even debian/ubuntu/mandriva/vmware problems are most likely to be solved by gentoo people). This seems to mean that the people who make and support gentoo are the real experts on the subject. sometimes the answer is in the arch forums, but it's almost never in the ubuntu forums. most of the other distros have people blindly guessing how to fix a problem. Gentoo people don't guess (mostly) they know.

Bluespear wrote:

• The user community (many experimented people)

LOL We are members of the Gentoo lab.

i am lazy to write all of them here..

That's an easy one:
-> HUGE software repo
-> Great community
-> Learning about Linux

good question, i'm not quite sure of the answer, probably mostly for the experience. setting everything up makes you really understand linux and such.

Definetly the community around Gentoo and the abilty Gentoo has as far as customization. Portage rocks and the challenges Gentoo brings me from time to time teach me alot about Linux.

because it's more stable and faster.

th0r wrote:Definetly the community around Gentoo and the abilty Gentoo has as far as customization. Portage rocks and the challenges Gentoo brings me from time to time teach me alot about Linux.

In fact, Gentoo is about learning how to run a Linux Box

I use Gentoo because it's the only distribution I know that can use Paludis reliably(well, kind of).

I used to use Gentoo exclusively, but I don't anymore. Actually, I don't use it at all. Gentoo was modeled after FreeBSD, but FreeBSD is superior to Gentoo in all respects. These days, I use FreeBSD, Debian, Slackware, and Mac OS X. Debian offers more than Gentoo could ever offer: rock-solid stability with performance that I never had on Gentoo. So, good bye folks!