Which features of Gentoo 1.4 do you find most compelling?
You must be logged in to the O'Reilly Network to post a talkback.

Showing messages 1 through 85 of 85.

• re: Does it have autodetection and graphical installer yet?
  2003-06-22 18:08:39  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  really uncalled for slam.
  
  when i want to cook, i turn a nob on my stove, i don't gather kindling, arrange them for proper airflow then rub sticks together.
  
  forgotten "progress"?

• Installation is medieval
  2003-03-15 03:25:13  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Only serious mind twisted geeks will bother to go trough the process of installing Gentoo.
  
  For ports/portage we already had BSD (and installation is MUCH more smoother).
• Installation is medieval
  2003-06-12 17:15:51  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Have you actually *tried* installing Gentoo 1.4? I did and everything worked like a champ. The install was *slow* because I chose to start from stage 1 (compile everything from scratch) instead of stage 2 (basic pre-compiled system) or stage 3 (stage 2 + precompile desktop), but there was absolutely nothing in Gentoo that wasn't "smooth". Also, the Gentoo portage tree is much better than the ones available from the BSD distros.
• network installation
  2003-04-26 17:51:03  hivegod [Reply | View]
  
  
  I have a gateway solo5300 laptop with no cdrom, but good internet access. Is it posible to do an installation from packages visible over the internet or off my hard drive?
  
  Also have email embiopterid@yahoo.com.

• gentoo vs lfs continued
  2003-03-08 11:42:30  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Linux From Scratch is one of my favorite distros. Having complete control over every single aspect is such a beautiful thing. However, LFS lacks the Portage system. Sure you can use any sort of package manager you want (I use the slackware .tgz method) to compile and build your own but you still have to set every single compile time flag and deal with dependency issues. Although I will never stop using LFS (or Slackware) Gentoo is fast becoming one of my favorites. The Portage system is fast (I have dsl), sets all the compile time flags(sometimes you have to tweak a little to get it JUST right) and most importantly it deals with dependencies automatically. One of the things I do like better about LFS though is the user community. Gentoo's is great but LFS seems to have a larger and more knowledgable user community. Help for Gentoo is readily available and you will always find the help you need , yu just need to look a little deeper.
  
  Slackware: 3 servers (office), 5 desktops(office), 2 desktops (home), 9 laptops (office), 1 laptop (home),
  LFS: 4 servers (home), 1 desktop (my personal desktop machine at home)
  Gentoo: 2 gamers(home), 1 gamer (office-unreal cd boot for after hours :) )

• Gentoo vs Linux From Scratch
  2003-03-08 10:55:05  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I just read all of the comments to this article. One of the overriding themes is stability and ease/time of install. If you read ALL of the documentation:install guide, social contract, etc... provided on gentoo.org BEFORE you begin to install, then you will know that gentoo is aimed at people who want to compile for their system, tweak it to the utmost and have COMPLETE control over packages (developers, gamers and ubergeeks like me). Gentoo is NOT for the everyday desktop user. If you want pretty GUI's (that limit your systems configurability) then gentoo is not for you.
• Gentoo vs Linux From Scratch
  2003-06-12 17:18:22  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I'm typing this message from my Gentoo 1.4 box (compiled from stage 1). It features a great GUI (KDE). I realize you were refering to a GUI for the install process, but I just wanted to make that clear to the casual reader.
  
  Cheers!

• Gentoo Experience
  2003-02-22 17:28:09  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I've just tried Gentoo on my main desktop box for four months. Initially I thought it was great, however with time my enthusiasm started to fade. Portage broken due to a developer checking in a bad version, perl version ping-pong and a lot of other annoying quirks that could all have been avoided.
  
  As a long time bsd user the portage implementation is nice in a linux context, however Gentoo as a whole just did not get there for me. My main gripe being that you spend more time trying to keep the system coherent and ironing out the creases than actually using it. Ok that's fine if you want to learn about all the internals but if you've already been then it quickly becomes tiresome.
  
  On the good side Gentoo had a few novelties I found quite interesting, an innovative init system in particular, automated etc updates, use flags and a good user community.
  
  On the downside I found Gentoo sits uncomfortably on the fence when deciding between freedom of choice to install what you want and a minimally stable base system. In my four months of use, I had about one month where all the elements of the base system could be considered coherent and functional without needing an upgrade of some sort to a major component. Another strange quirk is that the vital portage depends on python. Nice idea but if portage or python break then your in trouble. Would be much more reassuring to have a static portage.
  
  What finally drove me away from this distribution however was the general quality of it. A lot of the ebuilds are little more than quick hacks and not a genuine port. It works on the developers box, fine lets release it to the world. Testing policies and quality control seem to be less of a consideration than getting things out before the other distributions. That's fine if you judge the quality of a distribution by how much of the latest eye candy and gimmicks you can install. Personally I tend to judge more by the quality of how a system is integrated, developed and its code base. I found Gentoo to be somewhat lacking in this department. It just does not ooze the quality coding of debian or bsd flavors. Perhaps that will come with time. However having seen the way Gentoo evolved over a fair period, I have a few doubts. The ideas are great but I just could not take the implementation seriously.
  
• Gentoo Experience
  2003-11-30 12:23:44  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  The quality drove you away yet you only used it for 4 months? You barly have time to look arround much less wait to see how patching/upgrades and system stability progresses. If your system is not coherent and functional its your own fault, gentoo is a meta-distro you make it what you want/need, there is no fence. You either have a base install or you add to it. Don't blame the gentoo community because you used erroneous CFLAGS.
  Debian? Gentoo's stable branch is stable. Debian's stable branch ought to be renamed ancient. Without proof I tend to think 99% of debian users run it "unstable", so "the results are unpredictable?" . The gentoo stable is due to user recomendations and developer testing not a developer thinking "It works on my box, fine lets release it to the world." I think the developers of individual packages are more qualified to answer when their program is stable or not, the gentoo community listens to those developers and its community. You are able to mask any package or version you consider unstable for your system. Summary, don't blame gentoo if your box isnt stable, it's your own damn fault for not knowing how to use portage to create a custom stable linux workstation or server.
  P.S. uname -a
  Linux hepheastus 2.6.0-test9 #2 Fri Nov 28 01:53:06 CST 2003 ppc 7455, altivec supported GNU/Linux

• What makes Gentoo so great...
  2002-12-22 22:38:22  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  ...is that it makes "Linux From Scratch" intuitive. It helps you skip all the boring steps, it finds all the dependencies.
  
  So if I want a clean install of GNOME, all I need to do is issue <emerge gnome> as root. It automagically fixes problems with patches, downgrades problematic compile options & more.
  
  W00t! I say.

• Gentoo 1.4 for SPARC Images
  2002-12-18 00:12:29  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  hi there,
  
  just want to know if there's a site that provides Gentoo 1.4 for SPARC Images,
  
  thank you
  emille

• Is it possible to install???
  2002-11-25 22:19:11  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I installed 1.4RC1 by reading the instructions on the installation page carefully. I had one bad install because I forgot to copy over the kernel after compiling it (!!!), and couldn't figure out what was wrong. The second install went fine, I think I worked from LiveCD and a stage 3 tarball that time because I was impatient.
  
  My linux/unix experience before gentoo was just red hat 7.0, which I hated and never used, so I consider myself a rank beginner (see above for embarassing newbie story). I think the installation instructions are actually very clear. I disagree that the instructions are incomplete, misleading and written to deliberately confuse (do you think the developers are sadists who enjoy causing unhappiness?). I had no trouble, apart from my forgetting to copy the kernel to /boot (which is in the instructions, but I was just so happy to have compiled my first kernel that I forgot).

• Gentoo for Home, Debian for Servers
  2002-11-25 14:32:56  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Gentoo was easy to install for me, an old debian user. You just need to follow the instructions. I think that's the best method to install a distro, you learn so much!!!
  
  I will keep debian on my servers, Gentoo is bleeding edge, and i dont want to feel the blood on my servers ;)

• Gentoo, sounds good, but...
  2002-11-10 21:58:34  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Well, I discovered Gento quite by accident. It appeals enough that I would like to try it, but there are a number of questions.
  
  I've run linux, since 1997 when I spotted an ad from TransAmeritec in a magazine. That was a false start , but OS/2 was going no where and I just had to try some of the didtributions. (I liked Debian and still do, but my ability to customize was limited by experience and knowledge. I tried RH, but it did not grab me. The MDLUG had a demo with SuSE 5.2 and I decided to try it myself. I was running Debian & SuSE as well as OS/2, but eventually opted for SuSE.)
  
  I had considered trying NetBSD or OpenBSD, but never got around to it some some of the features sound intersting in Gentoo.
  
  That said the docs I've seen seem very straight forward, but I'm wondering about what a build is really like. I would call myself a relative newbie do building kde and gnome would seem a daunting task. There is still amore limiting barrier for me and that is my connect speed to the web.
  
  I'm afraid I'm one of the folk, lacking a wonderful thing called a dsl line or cable modem so downloading from the web is a very painful process.
  
  i've just completed grabbing the basic livecd iso. I'm not sure what is actually on the stage 2 & 3 archives, but I can cheat a little on those as a friend does have a cable modem and an LS-120 drive, which will enable me to grab those files.
  
  The question I have is is an install basically an impossible install for me? I have done everything I can to sqeek more bps out of my modem, an Actiontec 56k, but to no avail. 28.8 is the best I can do!
  
  I should say I generally like SuSE, but several bugs over the years have left me less than pleased. Also, though I do like yast, I think that in some ways though convenient, it does what most Windows software does limit the end user to what the software developer allows.
  
  I might ad that I jumped into Linux because of interest in Unix; looking for a useful tool as well as some education. I do have Win98 for one app, SolidWorks will not run, but my preference is Linux.
  
  Thanks for your thoughts.
  
• Gentoo, sounds good, but...
  2003-06-12 17:33:31  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  First off, you will want to head on over to http://forums.gentoo.org/ and post your questions there. There is a great Gentoo community just itchy to help you. :)
  
  "I would call myself a relative newbie do building kde and gnome would seem a daunting task."
  
  To install KDE you simply type: emerge kde
  
  To install Gnome you type: emerge gnome
  
  Gentoo's portage will automagically grab XFree86 and all of the other dependencies for you! It really is that easy. You will, of course, have to configure X once the install is complete. There is a Desktop Guide on the Gentoo website that is chock full of help.
  
  "i've just completed grabbing the basic livecd iso. I'm not sure what is actually on the stage 2 & 3 archives, but I can cheat a little on those as a friend does have a cable modem and an LS-120 drive, which will enable me to grab those files."
  
  You will want to install from stage 3. A stage 3 install requires much less downloading. All 3 stages are easy though (especially if you print out the documentation ahead of time). Basically, a stage 3 install has pre-compiled binaries so your machines performance might not be as good as a stage 1 install, BUT you can always re-emerge any apps once you've finished installing (to get the benefits of a customed compiled app).
  
  

• OMG I miss Gentoo!
  2002-11-08 15:51:08  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I swapped over to Mandrake 9 for a while to see if they improved substantially over 8.2.
  
  Uh... yuck!!!!!
  
  
  I'm reformatting and coming back to Gentoo this weekend. I'm so psyched for 1.4!

• Portage
  2002-11-06 23:02:16  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Great tool, that's the main reason why I love Gentoo.

• Gentoo & SE Linux Kernel
  2002-11-03 20:46:53  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I'm not exactly a newbie, but I've not been installing from scratch in any way as I run SuSE, though I have very much liked Debian for many reasons. I have been running linux since mid-1997. I'm afraid my familiarity with fine tuning linux is somewhat limited. I do prefer to grub to lilo and ReiserFS or ext3FS to standard install.
  I'd like to take a stab at Gentoo, though as yet I'm not fully sure how it differs from Debian in the social contract. (I only recently stumbled on Gentoo.)
  
  I would like to try the SE Linux Kernel, but being somewhat limited in terms of kernel compiling I'm wondering if perhaps these are mutually exclusive.
  
  Thanks.

• Looks great on the paper but ...
  2002-11-03 08:11:57  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I was looking for a "clean" up to date Linux distribution without the full load of free tools and softwares (I may use only 20% of em anyway), optimized, reliable, fast on small configs and Gentoo pretend to be just that but I had no luck to install it, the instructions given on the site are from Mars and there is no practical exemples of typical installations.
  
  Next time I will try again only if there is a decent installer or at least a thorough installation / troobleshooting guide.
  
  Having said that, keep up the good work, I firmly believe that you are in the right track to become one of the best Linux distribution out there.
  

• re: Is it possible to install???
  2002-11-03 07:57:36  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Yes, it is possible. I installed from the given instructions, and I am not a Doctor or a Lawyer, (see a previous post with this title). I am an artist, and certainly am not used to following instructions to the letter!
  
  However, I did read the instructions through BEFORE even turning on the ocmputer onto which Gentoo was to be installed. Reading instructions through before attempting an isntallatiopn seems quite common sense to me!

• Re: This is some solid stuff
  2002-10-28 06:34:45  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  > By the way, Rox-Filer in my opinion one of the best file managers. Trust me, I've used them all!
  
  I trusted you, I tried and I'm very happy !
  Now, in my opinion, ROX-Filer is one of the best file managers.

• Why I stuck to Debian
  2002-10-22 23:41:54  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Actually that's not all true.
  
  I now have Gentoo on my Desktop and keep Debian on my server.
  
  Remember: One distro isn't always better than another - it's usually just different.
  
  I still use Debian because they keep out untested packages.
  I use Gentoo because they'll throw anything in.
  
  I'd use Slackware if I want Vanilla and the .tar.gz method.
  
  My personal opinion is to look at the following when considering a distro:-
  
  - Social Contract
  - Packaging System
  - Packaging `Contract`; what packages are allowed in
  
  I switch to Gentoo from Debian because of the KDE3 / XFree4.2 issue - it highlighted for me the strengths of Debian and time for a change to something more approprite.
  
  That's pretty much it.

• Gentoo Rocks
  2002-10-21 00:14:03  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  The article in question seems to be a bit of a marketing press release at first glance. However, having used several Linux Distributions including Slackware and Debian in day-to-day use and on servers and also built a LFS once, I must say that in my opinion, Gentoo Linux is the most promising distribution - if you happen to have the bandwith.

• installation
  2002-10-19 18:36:02  jbcarr [Reply | View]
  
  
  I was really quite excited about the Gentoo project and release. I am even more excited about the release of 1.4 because maybe I will now be able to complete an initial installation successfully.
  
  I have attempted to install Gentoo at least 8 times over the past few months, using all the "stages" at one time or another. It is really a quite fascinating process, but when all is done, there is always failure on the first post installation boot of not recognizing the file system and not recognizing the network card. It's really very consistent, on three different machines, all of which are now running RedHat.
  
  I am not a linux guru, but am able to muck around with success on most other things I have tried using linux in the past. I am able to read and follow instructions.
  
  Maybe 1.4 will be better!?!
  
  J B Carr

• Release date?
  2002-10-18 08:43:56  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Anxiously awaiting the 1.4 release, but is there any fixed date for release. The article mentions that it should already be available, but it is nowhere to be found.

• re: Is it possible to install???
  2002-10-15 21:37:25  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  OK, I may have been a bit harsh when I stated that the instructions are deliberately misleading. I maintain there can be no denying that the instructions are incomplete and confusing. Some examples:
  
  At the end of Part 9, we are told that stage 3 tarballs have ELIMINATED the need to "emerge sync". The next sentence tells us it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to "emerge sync". The first sentence of Part 10 says we NEED to "emerge sync". Which is it?
  
  If you are using a stage 2 or 3 tarball, at which point do the instructions stop applying to you and at which point do you pick up again? Why don't they just say, "if you have a stage 3 tarball, proceed to Part X"? Is it extremely easy to make this part crystal clear, but Gentoo has chosen not to do so.
  
  The part after "Code listing 14.2 Compiling the kernal". Arguably the most critcal part of the installation procedure. We are told what flags we need to set before compiling our kernal. Where are these flags set? What file are we to edit, if that is what we are supposed to do? It just says set this flag, enable this or that without a mention of where to do it! This is the point where 2 of 4 of my test subjects were stopped dead in their tracks, unable to continue. Those that did continue (myself included) had systems that would not work properly because certain elements were not compiled.
  
  Yes, as a few of you have mentioned, if you have installed linux from scratch before, this is all elementary and quite simple. Those of us trying to make the jump from RH, Mandrake or SuSE are in foreign territory. i.e. the majority of the linux community would have trouble with this install.
• re: Is it possible to install???
  2003-03-26 01:54:37  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  you're ideot
• re: Is it possible to install???
  2003-04-21 08:24:48  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  In reply to the "you're ideot" post: YOU're rood and you shud lern to spel beter.
• re: Is it possible to iinnstall???
  2003-04-26 17:08:31  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  That's from ren and stimpy, a saterday morning childrens cartoon. (the you ideot thing)

• Vote for Gentoo -> OSDir.com
  2002-10-15 06:34:48  Steve Mallett | [Reply | View]
  
  
  I've just added Gentoo to our directory of open source apps. Vote for Gentoo here
  
  Steve

• Installation notes...
  2002-10-14 18:34:52  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  To preface, Gentoo is not for the newbie. I've
  administered large HP-UX/NCR/AIX systems for an
  international corporation, and learned several
  new things while installing. As far as a
  graphical interface, although one would be *nice*,
  the more generalized and "friendly" an installation
  becomes, the less easy it is to make your own choices.
  It is undeniably installable; the only reason I've
  had to reinstall was because I installed WXP after
  my original Gentoo and lost my partitions. If you
  are considering trying this distro, be prepared to
  wait and read a great deal. I've found nothing
  that would be misleading to someone who's installed
  some flavor of a Linux system and knew what was
  going on.
  
  Installing Gentoo is like following a new recipe --
  you have to read ahead in order to do it properly.
  
• Installation notes...
  2003-10-11 04:05:10  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I agree that the graphical interface is not necessary, I also learned a lot that I didn't know, and once I was done installing, I realized that I could go back and re-install anything at any point in the installation process, emerge handled most everything, kernel rebuild is a snap, I goofed up and forgot to install hotplug and just put the cd back in, chroot, emerge hotplug... wow, easy! Now I think I'm ready to tackle LFS, but why would I want to do that when I have gentoo? I'll never go back to redhat again, that's for sure, my system runs twice as fast now it seems.
• Installation notes...
  2002-11-03 08:10:54  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I second this.
  
  People who claim to have failed installing Gentoo because of bad documentation surely have not read ahead.
  
  I have installed Gentoo at least five times (on four different computers). I have not failed on installing Gentoo so far: the one re-install was due to me doing something stupid in fdisk, sometime after installing the OS.
• Installation notes...
  2003-12-28 04:01:15  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I have even installed gentoo on a remote pc via ssh. I would like to see this done on another distro with the same ease as gentoo. No point and click here.
  
  Gentoo rocks, but you gotta read your stuff! Gentoo a breath of fresh air if you ask me.

• Re: Rogue Nation
  2002-10-14 13:45:37  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  >Why does one of the screenshots blatantly >display the flag of a rogue nation?
  >
  >A nation that violates un security council >resolutions, enforces racist state policy and >violates human rights.
  >
  >
  >I cannot support gentoo if it is a distro that >supports states that terrorize innocent people >and help to destabilize the middle east.
  >
  >
  >Sorry but i don't use distros who promote hate >and violence.
  
  I believe you are referring to the Screenshot of Dan Armak's set-up. Dan happens to live in Israel and is presumably an Israeli - he is also the guy in charge of KDE for Gentoo. Whether or not he's proud of his country is his decision. A lot of people would disagree with the US on it's policy to Iraq (nearly everyone except the UK government in fact) but I wouldn't suggest that Americans not show their flag if they wanted too. Americans are proud of their country (they have a lot to be proud of) and presumably Dan feels the same about his...whether you agree with him or not.
  
  I seriously doubt that Gentoo was making a political statement about the Middle East by using the screenshot. I wasn't offended by it and I don't agree with much of what the Israeli government does either.
• Re: Rogue Nation
  2002-11-03 08:17:11  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Surely if it can be twisted that Gentoo "promote[s] hate and violence", then it can be equally said that Gentoo is independant to all the political background between different countries?
  
  Essentially, we are a community of programmers/hackers/users/etc. of a piece of software. If I display the Union (GB) flag on my desktop/whatever, does that mean that I am against the Irish Republic?
• Re: Rogue Nation
  2003-10-14 13:27:18  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Gentoo is about choice. Fly your own flag!

• Info on Portage Improvements?
  2002-10-14 09:49:33  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  The article mentions some interesting enhancements to Portage. Are these in 1.4_rc1, and is there more information anywhere?
  - Enhanced local sandbox technology
  - db "melting" and "freezing" for enhanced performance and flexibility
  - Preliminary Portage tree overlay support (for local Portage trees)
  - ...

• I will try it out!
  2002-10-14 07:21:16  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I'm a Debian GNU/Linux user since 1997 when I installed bo and I think it's the best Linux distro that I've ever used, it's stable, consistent and easy to administer however its release cycle is quite slow which makes it most of the time outdated (unless you stick to testing or unstable). Gentoo certainly will have an edge over Debian in terms of performance and being up-to-date however I would like to hear comments from Gentoo users about its stability when compared to Debian. I will try it out to take my own conclusions also.

• About NVIDIA
  2002-10-14 00:57:24  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  The social contract doesn't say they can't use software that isn't GPL'd. It says contributions to Gentoo should be GPL'd. The developers don't have the same contract as Debian.
  
  If linux gaming will ever take off, it will need to be commercial and not GPL. There is no money in GPL for game developers.
  
  So nvidia closed their glx driver? Does that mean I shouldn't use it for my Linux gaming box? I have to buy most of the games anyway, so obviously I don't care about everything I use being GPL'd.
  
  And on that note: Gentoo rocks. It is the fastest distro out there by far.

• Re: Is it possible to install???
  2002-10-13 20:26:06  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Yes, it is possible to install. Using the installation instructions/HOWTO. I know it's long (15 pages), but it is fairly complete. Note: gentoo, IMHO, is NOT a good distro for first-time Linux users. But, for someone with a bit of Linux/Un*x experience under their belt, it works just fine. And it's a wonderful thing for people like me, who have fallen in love with *BSD's ports (Except Portage, I have yet to find something which can beat FreeBSD Ports with portupgrade installed, in my eyes), but who need to run Linux for hardware/software/whatever support. Going through the HOWTO, step by step, and reading the notes ahead of time as you go (yes, warnings are after the pertinant instructions, but think of them as footnotes), it's hard to mess up.
  
  Installing it on my second computer right now... currently emerging stage2. What a joy Gentoo has proved to be.

• sourcecode of nvidia-drivers?
  2002-10-13 04:53:56  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  do you have the sourcecode of the nvidia-drivers or dont you care about your social contract in this special release of the install-disc?

• RE: rogue nations
  2002-10-12 16:45:48  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  >Why does one of the screenshots blatantly >display the flag of a rogue nation?
  
  >A nation that violates un security council >resolutions, enforces racist state policy and >violates human rights.
  Huh? Is the USA Flag on one of the screenshots? ;)
  
  Ok,ok i think i found it, you mean the israel flag? Or did i missed the old one of the krauts? ;)
  
  >I cannot support gentoo if it is a distro that >supports states that terrorize innocent people >and help to destabilize the middle east.
  
  >Sorry but i don't use distros who promote hate >and violence.
  
  Everyone is allowed to use free software, it doesn't matter who he/she is or where he/she lives not even what he/she does or does with the software, you could use linux on nuclear missiles, if you own some and it doesn't matter in which god/something he/she belives. - In short: Everyone could use it for everything.
  
  And btw. it is only a screenshot. Maybe someone in the USA got a flag of the USA on his/her screen, and maybe you got another or no flag on your screen. It doesn't matter! Gentoo is not politics, gentoo is free software and free software is neutral in such things, it is for everyone and this is good so. I am sure the people of gentoo haven't even thought about any politics when uploading the screenshot on the server and I don't see any reason why one flag should be better than another on a screenshot, if you want place a picture of the devil himself on a screenshot if the screenshot looks nice get it online, no problem.
  If you couldn't deal with it then write your own "political correct" Operating System that is only allowed to be used by "political correct" humans.
  
  Free Software is like air, everyone is allowed to breath.
• RE: rogue nations
  2003-01-18 07:00:08  mroova [Reply | View]
  
  
  >>Free Software is like air, everyone is allowed to breath.
  
  Until an idiot patents it. BTW, is in the US something not patented?

• RE: I almost tried this
  2002-10-12 16:11:03  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  >I felt gentoo was a tremedously good idea for old, >low-spec hardware, and as I have an old (but >wonderful) p133 laptop I almost started installing >gentoo on it. Unfortunately, at least when I looked >at it last, building stuff like X was still >mandatory, as all tools are graphical - and I also >quickly realized I would melt the poor thing by >spending a week or so compiling stuff.
  With the use option you could prevent your System building X, and which grafical tools? Are you sure that you tried to install gentoo? If so, could you please name the tools, could be interessting for me.

• Re: Almost a good distro
  2002-10-12 15:23:53  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  USE="-qt"
  in other words: Read The Fine Manual
  
  'nuff said

• re: LSB 1.2 Compliant
  2002-10-12 09:24:01  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  IIRC to be LSB 1.2 compliant you have to use the Redhat package management system. RPM's or Debian's package management system are fine, but why should that be included in a spec for how the filesystem is laid out. The two things have nothing to do with one another. There are many linux distro's that will not be able to be LSB compliant, even though their filesystems adhere in all respects to LSB, but they simply don't use RPM's. Politics.

• re: Does it have autodetection and graphical installer yet?
  2002-10-12 09:20:08  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I think Windows XP would be more your speed. Also, maybe you should get one of those Segway scooters so that you wouldn't have to walk. Maybe a live-in nurse to feed and bathe you. Lazy.

• Gentto installation
  2002-10-12 06:34:58  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Tip.
  
  Please, Developers do Gentoo more friendly to install, that is all.
  
  anonymous
  
• Gentto installation
  2002-11-03 08:29:22  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Why? At the expense of configurability? I think it is this 'friendlyness' that led RH7.3 to crash on installation about three times in the six that I have installed 7.3. Gentoo installed fine each time Iinstalled it...
• Gentto installation
  2002-11-19 13:46:01  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I had that truble with 8.0

• Almost a good distro
  2002-10-12 05:51:14  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Although Daniel's article suggest that if you don't want something (ie gnome) that apps won't have support for it enabled, this is not 100% correct.
  I often have to edit the ebuild to get Gentoo *not* to install crap that I don't want.
  One example off the top of my head is the mplayer package, it always wants to install the qt libraries, which it doesn't need, and I *don't* want.
  I want a clean lean machine, not a whole bunch of libraries I don't need or use.
  
• Almost a good distro
  2003-07-23 21:36:26  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Ummm I have mplayer installed, and, lo and behold, no qt. There are three things you can do it use flags, leave something out, put something in with a +, or put something in with a -. Leave it out, and it might install it anyway, put a minus and unless its a real dependency, it will leave it out.
  
  In make.conf USE="-qt -kde -arts -qtmt..."
  
  
• Almost a good distro
  2002-10-15 13:00:24  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Have you heard of the USE-Flags in make.conf?

• BSD vs Gentoo?
  2002-10-12 03:19:15  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I've thought of installing a BSD OS for some time now, mostly to learn a new unix OS but also for the BSD license.
  
  How does Gentoo differs from BSD except that it's Linux?
• BSD vs Gentoo?
  2003-08-26 19:43:05  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Apart from running different kernels, gentoo linux uses init.d startup scripts(/etc/init.d), where as FreeBSD uses the BSD (system v?) style startup scripts (/etc/rc.d).
  The default shell is csh.
  The package systems are both quite similar in that they both sit on the filesystem in directories and they both resolve dependencies(sp?) automatially, but there is no emerge under BSD.
  There are lots of other little differences like config files being in different places etc but everything is covered on www.freebsd.org

• Is it possible to install???
  2002-10-12 01:05:03  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  How did anyone who uses Gentoo 1.4RC1 get it on their computer? Surely,you didn't follow the directions on the website because they are incomplete, misleading and written to deliberately confuse the unfamiliar. You are told to edit files without being told which files to edit. You follow the instructions and they give you warnings AFTER you type them. The list goes on. I have given the instructions, CD and stage 3 tarball to 4 different people and no one was able to install it. These people are not idiots, they are people you depend on when your life and livelihood are at stake (doctors, lawyers). They make their living by following instructions properly.
• Is it possible to install???
  2002-11-25 22:19:13  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I installed 1.4RC1 by reading the instructions on the installation page carefully. I had one bad install because I forgot to copy over the kernel after compiling it (!!!), and couldn't figure out what was wrong. The second install went fine, I think I worked from LiveCD and a stage 3 tarball that time because I was impatient.
  
  My linux/unix experience before gentoo was just red hat 7.0, which I hated and never used, so I consider myself a rank beginner (see above for embarassing newbie story). I think the installation instructions are actually very clear. I disagree that the instructions are incomplete, misleading and written to deliberately confuse (do you think the developers are sadists who enjoy causing unhappiness?). I had no trouble, apart from my forgetting to copy the kernel to /boot (which is in the instructions, but I was just so happy to have compiled my first kernel that I forgot).

• Why I stuck with Slackware
  2002-10-12 01:03:41  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Gentoo's "marketing" really sounded great to me and I was going to try it out (I have the 1.3 ISO) and got as far as stage1 or stage2 and was halted because I wasn't able to configure dialup connectivity at that time.
  
  So I put it off and later ended up installing Slackware 8.1 instead. After evaluating the Slackware 8.1 environment, I decided to stick with it.
  
  A couple of important reasons:
  
  1) Slackware uses (virtually) vanilla everything and vanilla tastes great. I just feel better when I patch the standard Linus kernel (which arguably has more conservative options) myself (quite easy actually) to get the more experimental stuff like the O(1) scheduler, etc... Note that I have actually seen some problems with using these patches (try running several gfx animations with the ckolivas ck7_2.4.19 patch - similar setup to the Gentoo kernel with O(1),ll, rmap - to see what I mean) and am glad I can fall back to the stock kernel easily and cleanly. Most everyone these days seem to be running some variant of the Linux kernel instead of the Linus blessed one... same goes for KDE, etc... I can hear distant bells ominously tolling "Linux fragmentation".
  
  2) Not having to learn YAPS (yet another ports system). Portage sounds great on paper but it also looks pretty complex. But that is actually besides the point. I have found it to be VERY easy to download a tar.gz, compile it the way the author meant it to be compiled (as opposed to being compiled for a specific distro), and cleanly create my own Slackware package which I can easily install and uninstall anytime.
  See http://lists.q-linux.com/pipermail/plug/2002-September/021161.html for concise details. No ports system to wrestle with.
  
  3) Slackware's philosophy has been very consistent throughout the years. Long time users who are familiar with it and understand its goals don't seem to have ever been in for a rude/unpleasant shock. Patrick Volkerding has stayed with the original 'least bloat' vision but at the same time has managed to put in all the modern Linux related core functionality in Slackware. Clean, lean and mean seem to be Slackware's watchwords and it shows.
• Why I stuck with Slackware
  2003-06-16 19:09:05  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  1) emerge vanilla-sources
  
  2) You can download .tar.gz and compile yourself all you want on Gentoo -- Portage just won't upgrade for you later.
  
  3) Gentoo's philosophy is "Do whatever you want." You can compile KDE with all the bells and whistles, or you can stick with fvwm.

• Does it have autodetection and graphical installer yet?
  2002-10-11 20:56:09  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I'm passed my tickering days a few years ago and I just want stuff to install easy and clean.. no following a HOWTO or manually loading modules or mounting file systems. I'd heard a rumor they were toying with some different graphical installers.. did one make it in?

• Gentoo
  2002-10-11 20:13:18  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Regardless of the distribution, Linux is not Unix,
  nor will it ever be. It cannot make up its mind as to whether it is SysV or BSD Unix and as a consequence is neither.
  
  Most Linux users probably have never experienced a 'true' Unix running on the platform for which it was designed. I strongly recommend a taste of Digital Unix before it totally disappears. The demise of the Alpha chip is a crime against humanity.

• Compliment
  2002-10-11 20:06:41  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I think you article was excellent in many terms; detail, intrest, & humor. As well as serving as my introduction to Gentoo Linux.

• Compliments to the Gentoo Development Team
  2002-10-11 19:17:21  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I have been using Redhat, Mandrake and FreeBSD.
  I'm really fond of FreeBSD, but linux has better hardware support. That's why I'm running Gentoo on a desktop and a laptop.
  
  I would like to mention that Gentoo is making improvements at high speed and also bugs are usually fixed in a short time. Sometimes within an hour.
  With Gentoo you run the latest software!
  
  Thank you, Development Team of Gentoo.
  

• No LSM ?!
  2002-10-11 18:37:37  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  So many nice kernel patches included. Why not LSM (linux security modules) patch, so we can use it with nice tools like selinux ?
  

• rogue nations
  2002-10-11 18:32:10  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Why does one of the screenshots blatantly display the flag of a rogue nation?
  
  A nation that violates un security council resolutions, enforces racist state policy and violates human rights.
  
  I cannot support gentoo if it is a distro that supports states that terrorize innocent people and help to destabilize the middle east.
  
  Sorry but i don't use distros who promote hate and violence.

• re: I almost tried this
  2002-10-11 17:02:44  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Umm, why in the world would you HAVE to install X? All commands are for X? That couldn't be farther from the truth! One of the biggest selling points of Gentoo for me is that this is one of the easiest distros to get a fully working COMMAND LINE ONLY environment without all the fluff a normal distro wants you to use!
  
  Gentoo really is awesome and I can't wait to try out 1.4, I hope they hurry up and post the ISO. lol

• Gentoo rocks!
  2002-10-11 15:47:25  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I've been using Gentoo since 1.1a and have converted all of my other Linux boxen to Gentoo. I'm even using it at work for a production server platform with no problems.
  It has the best package management and the fastest performance I've seen in any other distro -- and I've tried Suse, Mandrake, Red Hat, Lycoris, TurboLinux, Beehive, Peanut, Corel, Slackware, and Debian.
• Boxen
  2003-03-24 11:26:28  mennis [Reply | View]
  
  
  Boxen is acceptable, look it up.
  
  boxen
  
  /bok'sn/ (By analogy with VAXen) A fanciful plural of box often encountered in the phrase "Unix boxen", used to describe commodity Unix hardware. The connotation is that any two
  Unix boxen are interchangeable.
  
• boxen???
  2002-11-19 13:43:43  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  boxen?? Do you mean boxes. Learn to speal foal. :)

• I _almost_ tried this
  2002-10-11 14:58:27  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I felt gentoo was a tremedously good idea for old, low-spec hardware, and as I have an old (but wonderful) p133 laptop I almost started installing gentoo on it. Unfortunately, at least when I looked at it last, building stuff like X was still mandatory, as all tools are graphical - and I also quickly realized I would melt the poor thing by spending a week or so compiling stuff.
  
  
• I _almost_ tried this
  2002-11-03 08:07:01  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I installed it on a p100, well within the span of 24 hours. As suggested in some documentation, I left it installing x/kde etc. overnight, and the following morning I had a fully working OS. (Constant tweaking to follow, but that would be the same wether it is a 100MHz system or a 2gHz system...
  
  Give it a go: what's to lose?!

• LSB 1.2 Compliant
  2002-10-11 14:53:17  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Honest question. Gentoo looks *really* nice, but I want to work on lsb standard distros. Any info out there?

• typo
  2002-10-11 14:45:12  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  EMVS
• typo - corrected
  2002-10-11 15:51:45  sarahkim [Reply | View]
  
  
  thanks!
  
  -sarah, producer

• Similar to Debian, but....
  2002-10-11 12:09:23  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  Debian's apt-get is quicker when using binary packages. Although, you will find new packages for Gentoo long before they are available for Debian (including SID).

• Gentoo is solid and fast
  2002-10-11 11:27:02  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  My job is SQA, and since our product runs on Linux, I test on several major distros, such as RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, and SuSE. The RPM-based distros are bloated and buggy. Debian is great, but Gentoo is even better. The setup takes longer due to the compile time, but sys admin is the easiest by far in Gentoo. Upgrades are a snap. I have a very lean Gentoo setup at home running IceWM - rock solid and fast.

• This is some solid stuff
  2002-10-11 09:46:24  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I've been using Gentoo for a few months, and I'm loving it! Although I haven't "optimized" it all that much, I like not having stuff I don't use like KDE and GNOME. Instead I can have my slick sawfish/rox desktop. Liking FreeBSD's ports system but disliking Windows-like Mandrake and it's sluggishness, Gentoo was my savior! By the way, Rox-Filer in my opinion one of the best file managers. Trust me, I've used them all!

• Great "lean and mean" distro
  2002-10-11 09:36:33  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I've been using Gentoo for 8 months now. I'm fortunate to have a broadband connection so emerge'ing updates is no big deal. I've got to say that my system is so clean that it squeaks. I'm a GNOME fan so there is not a lick of Qt or KDE on my system thanks to the USE="-qt -kde -arts -qtmt" flags. As for services that I run, they are limited to just a couple. I don't even run cron. I love the init script layouts, the make.conf capabilities, the config protection, and abundance of up-to-date ebuilds.
  
  Gotta love this distro!
  

• Gentoo has been good to me
  2002-10-11 07:37:27  grepsedawk [Reply | View]
  
  
  Just wanted to encourage other people to give Gentoo a whirl. I'v only been using it since June, but I've found it to be the fastest desktop Linux I've used to date.
  
  I have rather mundance hardware, a PII366 laptop, and desktops ranging from Celeron 366 to PIII600. Gentoo has compiled without a hitch on each system, and given me steller performance and stability.
  
  The instructions on the website are thorough and take you through each step of the install process. Though more involved than a Red Hat installation, I still found it to be amazingly easy to do and I learned several things I didn't already know.
  
  What I like best is that is that I end up with a very clean system. There are not a lot of programs installed or daemons running in the background that I didn't explicity say that I wanted. In my opinion this makes the machine a great choice for a desktop OS to deploy to end users. A minimal configuration with just the business applications you want to have on it. And emerge is very scriptable so it is possible to completely remotely administrate the machines and keep them up to date.
  
  That said, I cannot get the ebuild for Xfree 4.1 to work. I know 4.2 is the latest and greates, but a bug appears to have been introduced that doesn't allows a 4.2 user (Linux, Cygwin Xfree, Oroboror (sp?) on Mac OS X, to run Framemaker from a Solaris server. I know 4.1 works, just not 4.2. Interestingly, 4.2 does work if you ssh to the machine within an ssh session you already have to that machine. Weird.
  
  Sum up, try gentoo out. You'll be happy you did.

• looks like I will give it a whirl
  2002-10-11 07:01:49  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  After being unsatisfied with the other distros I will give this one a try, it looks good and I like the portage feature. Very cool.

• Gentoo 1.4
  2002-10-11 05:35:36  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I've been running gentoo for about 8 or 9 months and i think it is the best distribution of linux. being able to totally customize and build your system how you want is amazing. Also the documentation is incredible and the people in the chat room are very helpful and supportive

• Interesting
  2002-10-11 05:20:34  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  I might have to give this a try. That Said, I am a die-hard Debian/Gnu fan!!!!!!!!!!1
• Gentoo and Debian
  2002-10-11 10:01:44  chromatic | [Reply | View]
  
  
  Gentoo and Debian GNU/Linux have a lot in common. I'd give Gentoo a slight edge in that you can customize it more since you're usually building from source, but it can be a lot faster to use apt-get to install a binary.
  
  I wouldn't want to upgrade a system without either portage or apt-get. :)
• gentoo main
  2003-11-07 14:44:02  anonymous2 [Reply | View]
  
  
  hey all,
  
  i've been using gentoo for about 2 years. i've tried slackware, various redhats, mandrakes and debians. about a dozen different distros over the years. gentoo is a fast maturing distro that i reckon is the best of the lot. i consider myself just a joe blow user and gentoo provides everything i need. except.... see below
  
  i have zzxp doze on a small partition that i use for a taxation reporting software only. i can't even use doze update. not enough space and it ain't getting any more.
  
  take the time to learn with gentoo and you'll be rewarded with a sleek and stable system.
  
  joe blow