GentooThis forum is for the discussion of Gentoo Linux.
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Gentoo is customizable. Is customizability a good thing? Well, if you want to tailor every single piece of the system -starting from the very core- with your own hands then it's the best OS around the world. If you want a click'n'run system then Gentoo is very bad.
This is what I want from a distro. I like Debian but it's headed in a direction I dont like. In Lenny run levels 2,3,4 and 5 are exactly the same. Can someone say 'upstart', yuck! Nor do I need that new sound daemon. Debian is starting to look like Ubuntu. Ubuntu is good for the masses but not me.
Slackware is cool but I cant stand Kde, need my Gnome.
As far as GNU/Linux goes I've not done to bad considering I'm a deseil mechanick by trade.
Spent weeks installing Linux From Scratch so this should be fairlly straight forward. Just need to figure how things are done.
Im just curious about Gentoo because my co-worker said that its customizable, which is what i want in a box.
Now i just want to get some inputs regarding the benefits of Gentoo its good side and bad side and how does it stand over the other popular distros.
Also can Gentoo be used in servers.
For my box its an old 1.2gz AMD Athlon.
Like others have said, Gentoo can be used in servers. Gentoo requires a compiler to install, so you have to take more time to remove it. To update programs, you then use a separate computer that is setup as a Gentoo binary server. Next you tell the server to install the programs from the binary server.
Like others have said, the good of Gentoo is installing programs with features that you need and do not want. The bad is the time it takes to install. Personally, I do not mind this because Gentoo provides what is Linux all about which is installing the desire programs and selecting features that you want for the program. The ugly of Gentoo is its utilities is written in Python, so be careful upgrading Python. I would not say Gentoo is hard for anybody. If the user can read, think, and follow directions, installing Gentoo can be easy and tedious.
Overall, Gentoo is the best distribution that Linux has to offer. It might be hard to get at first, but the best is always hard.
Good you made up your mind. You seem to be quite active in the forum. Mostly are an advanced user. Take up the Gentoo challenge, you will enjoy it.
As a P.S. I would like to add that we should be asking 'am I good for the distro' than 'is the distro good'. Coz, distros like Gentoo, Slackware, Arch, LFS are not for 'HELLLLPPPP.... ME!!!!' kind of users. They demand certain amount of maturity from us. But once we dip into them there is nirvana for sure.
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