Gentoo

[Collins]

On Fri, 22 Mar 2002 22:25:08 -0500 Douglas J Hunley
<doug at hunley.homeip.net> wrote:> Collins spewed electrons into the ether
that assembled into:> > > opinions here?
> 
> gentoo rocks. got the guys at work installing it just this week.
> 
> > can choose from ext2, ext3, and Reiserfs for your filesystems.
> 
> there's only one correct choice in that list. can you guess it? :)
> 
> > N.B. Depending on the speed of your PC, you're looking at a 2 day to
> > 1 week install period to get everything compiled.  It took me about
> > 3 days, and I have full gnome, kde, etc.  You will be happiest if
> > you have a high speed internet connection, since all sources are
> > downloaded on the fly from the authoratative ftp site for each.
> 
> also, make sure you can rsync through your firewall. otherwise, you're
> screwed. I've been bringing laptops home every night this week just to
> run the rsync portion of the setup cause the firewall at work won't
> allow it. :(
> 
> >
> > In the future, gentoo will probably offer CD sets and binary
> > distributions, but that's still in the future.
> 
> worthless, IMNSHO. the current method is best. makes you learn what
> the fsck is going on with your setup. also optimizes it for your
> hardware (if I had a dollar for every time a new linux convert asked
> me why everything said 386 when he/she has a Thunderbird or P3...)

Yeah, gentoo rocks, although a few curmudgeons on the list don't like
that review terminology!  Gentoo rocks fast, but currently it still
rocks off the tracks every few days.  

I can't begin to count the times I read: "question: ebuild zyz fails -
why?" "answer: oops, I screwed that up, fixed in a few minutes."  Thus
far, the developers just don't get the process:  develop a new version,
test it thoroughly, then commit to portage.  They are responsive,
though, and fix their mistakes quickly.  I always complain to the
developer when I read this; they're probably tired of my opinions at
this point.

With respect to the binary vs. source distribution issue.

Yes source distribution is great for us tinkerers and for those
sysadmins who like to build a common distro then clone it for a
multitude of users, but most of the potential Windoze refugees out there
don't have the patience to wait 3 days to a week for their instant
gratification.

I believe that gentoo intends to make available 386, 586, 686, etc.
pre-compiled versions, but that's down the road a ways.

One of the tremendous benefits I get from gentoo is the kde releases.  I
forego the sufferings (sorry Keith and Pam et al.) of working with this
in the early stages.  When it's ready to go, I just launch the ebuild
and let it do its thing for hours on end while I am otherwise occupied.

-- 
Collins Richey - Denver Area - WWTLRD?
Gentoo_rc6-15 2.4.17 - xfce + sylpheed + mozilla