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On Dec 3, 2011 3:06 AM, "Dale" <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> |
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> LinuxIsOne wrote: |
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>> |
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>> Why I asked to just know if Gentoo is better or openSUSE is better for a |
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novice who want to learn Linux, just coming directly from Windows...that's |
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why...However, I have liked the Ubuntu (since it is easy and nice) but |
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don't know about all Linux in general....is Gentoo is also using the same |
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Linux which Ubuntu is using? Cheers. |
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> |
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> |
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> "Better" depends on what you expect. If you want to learn about Linux, |
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Gentoo will teach you a lot. Heck, you will learn a lot by the time you |
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get it installed and get to your first boot prompt. I get the impression |
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that you don't realize how in depth Gentoo is. Gentoo can be installed by |
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a Linux newcomer but it will not be a walk in the park. I used Mandrake |
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for 6 months or so and it took me about 3 tries to get to a point where |
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Gentoo would boot up. It took a while more to get everything working |
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still. I had to redo my kernel several times. |
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> |
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> The point I am making is, it is not how different Gentoo is from other |
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distros, it's whether it is something you need and want to put the time in |
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to learn. Gentoo doesn't have a GUI installer and you do have to compile |
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everything you install. I recently installed Kubuntu for my Brother. It |
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is a walk in the park compared to installing Gentoo. Did I learn anything |
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about Linux, not hardly. I don't think Kubuntu is made to teach a lot |
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about Linux. It's just made to install easily and quickly without much |
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fuss. |
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> |
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> I do hope you will try Gentoo tho. It is sort of addicting at times. lol |
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> |
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Indeed! Especially control freaks like me :-) |
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But seriously, I personally found Gentoo to be the most logical Linux |
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distro. Yes, the initial barrier (installation) is daunting, so to speak, |
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but after doing it successfully, one can immediately intuit "what's going |
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on". Installing and configuring other packages becomes piece of cake. |
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The logical way of Gentoo even extends to its packages. For instance, |
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packages that are meant to be run as services/daemons will *certainly* have |
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a pair of files in conf.d and init.d. Customizable environs are in env.d |
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and profile.d. And so on. |
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I've used Linux exclusively as servers, and I have dabbled with Red Hat, |
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CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, and Arch, but Gentoo wins hands down for its |
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logicality. |
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Not to mention that I can customize my servers exactly to my |
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specifications, instead of having to put up with cruft that the distro |
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maintainer feel as a "must have". Case in point : how many distros allow |
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you to choose which cron daemon you want to use? |
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Another plus point is the almost complete devel tools provided out of the |
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box: the gcc suite. Now if I happen across an open source project that |
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hasn't made it yet to the portage tree, I can just download and compile it |
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myself. |
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Related to that, is the great job Portage did regarding dependency hell. |
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Since I am no longer hostage to the whims of the distro maintainer re: |
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versions of libraries installed, if a program needs a library that's newer |
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than the current 'stable' version, I can just keyword the needed version |
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and compile away. |
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Rgds, |
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