techTuesday, July 26, 2005
Why Gentoo
There is no shortage of linux distributions to choose from, so why do I prefer Gentoo Linux?
My linux experience started with a RedHat 5 cd that someone gave me. I managed to get it installed on some old PC I had. I was installed, I managed to log in, and sat staring at the command prompt with absolutely no idea what to do next or what this system was capable of. I tried a few DOS commands (I learned to use a computer in the DOS/Win3.x days), realized that this was a totally different animal, and finally figured a few things out. I don't remember exaclty what I got it to do, but I don't think I had any GUI. I did figure out the shutdown command and I didn't wait too long before installing Windows 98 back onto the drive.
A while later, I read the Linux User's Guide, a bunch of other linux documentation on the internet, and bought the Debian GNU/Linux Bible. So I got Debian installed and running on an old pc from the Good Will. I learned a lot with this setup, but didn't have the resources/interrest to push it to the limit - I didn't run any server software, it wasn't networked to anything, dial-up internet only.
Then I tried a bunch of other big-name distros - Redhat, Suse, Slackware, etc. I didn't find one that I really liked and when I would find something I liked in one, it wouldn't be in the others - also the setup/configuration procedures varied quite a bit from one to the other.
One day I stumbled upon the linux-from-scratch webpage and was mystified. I did it. I installed linux on my computer entirely from scratch - everything was compiled from the source code. This means that everything is custom-tailored to my system and needs. I liked the idea and eventually had a nice GUI and everything. But without a nice package management system, installing and updating sofware was a bit of a pain - broken dependencies and all.
Then I found Gentoo - Gentoo compiles everything from source just like LFS and it has a very nice package management system that installs new software from source and updates existing software. It was amazing. It takes a bit longer to install stuff because it has to be compiled from the source, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It also supports Athlon64, so when I built my Athlon64 system, I compiled everything from source to 64-bit code. My operating system runs natively at 64 bit, which Windows XP is unable to do. Up to now, I've been dual-booting linux and Windows XP in the same box, but the Athlon64 is a pure linux box. I only use Windows junk when I'm working on someone else's computer.
My linux experience started with a RedHat 5 cd that someone gave me. I managed to get it installed on some old PC I had. I was installed, I managed to log in, and sat staring at the command prompt with absolutely no idea what to do next or what this system was capable of. I tried a few DOS commands (I learned to use a computer in the DOS/Win3.x days), realized that this was a totally different animal, and finally figured a few things out. I don't remember exaclty what I got it to do, but I don't think I had any GUI. I did figure out the shutdown command and I didn't wait too long before installing Windows 98 back onto the drive.
A while later, I read the Linux User's Guide, a bunch of other linux documentation on the internet, and bought the Debian GNU/Linux Bible. So I got Debian installed and running on an old pc from the Good Will. I learned a lot with this setup, but didn't have the resources/interrest to push it to the limit - I didn't run any server software, it wasn't networked to anything, dial-up internet only.
Then I tried a bunch of other big-name distros - Redhat, Suse, Slackware, etc. I didn't find one that I really liked and when I would find something I liked in one, it wouldn't be in the others - also the setup/configuration procedures varied quite a bit from one to the other.
One day I stumbled upon the linux-from-scratch webpage and was mystified. I did it. I installed linux on my computer entirely from scratch - everything was compiled from the source code. This means that everything is custom-tailored to my system and needs. I liked the idea and eventually had a nice GUI and everything. But without a nice package management system, installing and updating sofware was a bit of a pain - broken dependencies and all.
Then I found Gentoo - Gentoo compiles everything from source just like LFS and it has a very nice package management system that installs new software from source and updates existing software. It was amazing. It takes a bit longer to install stuff because it has to be compiled from the source, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It also supports Athlon64, so when I built my Athlon64 system, I compiled everything from source to 64-bit code. My operating system runs natively at 64 bit, which Windows XP is unable to do. Up to now, I've been dual-booting linux and Windows XP in the same box, but the Athlon64 is a pure linux box. I only use Windows junk when I'm working on someone else's computer.
