Considering Gentoo

Message

rakeyry · Post by **rakeyry** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:43 am

Hey ya'll. Got a new laptop. Compaq Presario V2000, considering Gentoo for it, take a look at the specs and tell me what you think. Also considering Slackware, what do you all think? Basically i'm open to any distro but i'm just considering compatibility. So let me hear your two cents! =D

Specs:

AMD Turion 64 Mobile
Technology ML-40
800 MHz
384 MB of ram
80 G hard drive

Ezhdeha · Post by **Ezhdeha** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:12 am

Well, Gentoo will be great on your 64Bit lappie. As long as you don't have an ATI graphics card.

I use Gentoo on my desktop but use Kubuntu on my lappie. It works great, no compatibility issues whatsoever. In fact all my employees and colleagues use Kubuntu on their laptops as well which are predominantly Compaq / HP laptops and we have no dramas.

phobos13013 · Post by **phobos13013** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:15 am

FYI, This should go in Gentoo Chat or something. This subforum is for questions pertaining to an actual stage in the Gentoo Installation. That being said, yr machine is more than prime for a Gentoo install. Slackware i would imagine would work just as well. I suppose it depends if you want to compile your distro from source or from binaries. Personally, i like to use Gentoo so i would put Gentoo on it; thats my suggestion. If you have any questions once you get started, feel free to post in here. Or an associated forum (Portage issues in portage/programming, kernel questions in kernels/hardware). Good Luck!

desultory · Post by **desultory** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:24 am

I would suggest first checking the functionality of the system using a live CD such as Knoppix then, having saved configuration data about how Knoppix setup the system, try Slackware and Gentoo to determine which better fits your needs and preferences for that system.

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Gentoo Chat.

Interimo · Post by **Interimo** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 11:38 am

Gentoo would work fine on that setup, but I probably wouldn't use Gnome or KDE. For the best performance out of that machine, I'd use something lighter like Xfce or Fluxbox. Meaning if you don't use Gentoo, Xubuntu would be a good choice. Like others have stated, it depends on if you want source or binary installs. Configurability or ease-of-use is what it really comes down to.

Edit: Also, Arch Linux looks pretty nice, and prides themselves on being light and minimalistic. I'm actually downloading it right now.

chrisfreet · Post by **chrisfreet** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 4:04 pm

Interimo wrote:Gentoo would work fine on that setup, but I probably wouldn't use Gnome or KDE. For the best performance out of that machine, I'd use something lighter like Xfce or Fluxbox.

Hell, for that matter, I run Xfce / Beryl on my desktop. Gnome's nice and all, but sometimes I want a little less.

Run Gentoo. I don't know your Gentoo (or Linux) experience, but I can guarantee you'll appreciate Linux more after successfully setting up a Gentoo system. Besides, you are guaranteed to have a slimmer system using Gentoo, considering the setup philosophy is the opposite of an Ubuntu/Windows setup philosophy (with Gentoo you start from the ground up, rather than paring down all the drivers and services in the world that you don't really want to use).

As far as hardware compatibility goes, if it works in Ubuntu, it's gonna work in Gentoo. It may take a little more digging to find out what you need to make it work, but it will work.

A good suggestion, as this will tell you basically all you need to know about your hardware:

desultory wrote:I would suggest first checking the functionality of the system using a live CD such as Knoppix then, having saved configuration data about how Knoppix setup the system, try Slackware and Gentoo to determine which better fits your needs and preferences for that system.

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 4:57 pm

[quote="chrisfreet]
Run Gentoo. I don't know your Gentoo (or Linux) experience, but I can guarantee you'll appreciate Linux more after successfully setting up a Gentoo system. Besides, you are guaranteed to have a slimmer system using Gentoo, considering the setup philosophy is the opposite of an Ubuntu/Windows setup philosophy (with Gentoo you start from the ground up, rather than paring down all the drivers and services in the world that you don't really want to use).

As far as hardware compatibility goes, if it works in Ubuntu, it's gonna work in Gentoo. It may take a little more digging to find out what you need to make it work, but it will work.
[/quote]

Yes of course, Gentoo can speedup a system and also, you will have a pretty minimal kernel if you use the make menuconfig to set up a custom kernel.

Roman_Gruber · Post by **Roman_Gruber** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:07 pm

use amd64, i hava a mt34 turion prozessor. Only look out for more RAM. I have 1GB and it could be more, especially while compiling openoffice, Gimp or doing more than 10 things in gnome with beryl. It is not so easy to set up an ATI card, but I have one and it works.

Buy a notebook with at least 2 GB ram, you will need it!

I use gnome-light and it is nearly as fast as xfce4 but also lighter as xfce4. I have tried xfce4, but I didn*t liked it.
In gnome you have everything and also the kde stuff with the kdelibs.

Ezhdeha · Post by **Ezhdeha** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 1:08 pm

I have to admit, I've put Gentoo on my laptop now as well and it runs a lot better.

I've learned so much more about linux after installing Gentoo than any other distro

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:52 pm

Ezhdeha wrote:I have to admit, I've put Gentoo on my laptop now as well and it runs a lot better.

I've learned so much more about linux after installing Gentoo than any other distro

In fact, Gentoo is not a common distribution. It's a educational distribution, and it not a WYSIWYG and this is perfect

steveL · Post by **steveL** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:12 pm

I put gentoo on a work 64-bit laptop and it ran like a dream. I had kubuntu on it before and it was disastrous simply in terms of interface. All the useful stuff like opening a terminal from konqueror isn't there. Compiling a kernel to get rid of some bloat was impossible. For a Linux newb, no argument. For anyone who wants to do more than you can on a Windows machine, forget it.

If it'll run Linux, it'll definitely run gentoo. Gentoo will run on machines other distros can't even think about.

Ezhdeha · Post by **Ezhdeha** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 12:50 pm

steveL wrote:...For a Linux newb, no argument. For anyone who wants to do more than you can on a Windows machine, forget it.

I find I can do a lot more on my Gentoo install than I ever could on any windows machine. In fact, my work output has virtually tripled since I made the permanent switch across. This may be because of less distractions with games or whatever. With Crossover office you can have compatible "Office" functionality with the remaining 97% of the unenlightened world and the rest is easy-peasy-japafkneasy

Considering Gentoo

Considering Gentoo

Distros

Yeah, run Gentoo

Re: Yeah, run Gentoo

Productivity boost