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On 09/10/2012 05:46 PM, Chris Stankevitz wrote: |
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> Gentoo is the best distribution I have used (I haven't used too many: |
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> ubuntu, fedora, gentoo). I love the USE flags. I love watching (and |
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> questioning) what is going to be installed. I love emerge. |
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> Supposedly gentoo lacks being able to have a system "just work" |
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> without thinking about anything. But in my experience on linux, this |
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> simply isn't the case anywhere. With ubuntu, for example, I had |
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> trouble with sound and ethernet cards that I could never figure out... |
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> and the kind of answers I get on their forums drive me insane ("my |
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> uncle once said that his cousin typed this magical command and it |
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> worked fine for a little while so maybe try that"). |
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> |
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> And what's the deal with these "major release versions" of the other |
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> distros? Why do that? |
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Most of the binary based distributions have tied their stars to the |
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major desktop |
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environments. [For example Fedora is heavily tied to RedHat and the GNOME |
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desktop, and many RedHat employees are major GNOME developers.] |
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Fedora/GNOME is very nice for modern hardware and mostly "just works" |
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because |
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a lot of effort goes into testing each major release. But the GNOME |
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philosophy has |
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become one of hiding the inner workings of GNU/Linux in much the same |
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manner that |
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Microsoft hides all the innards of Windows. But Fedora is also the most |
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'bleeding" edge |
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distribution, getting the latest and greatest every six monthe or so. |
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Debian and Ubuntu are also dedicated to producing "desktop ready" |
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distributions |
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that hide everything under the hood. The try to provide a more stable |
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environment as well. |
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All the binary distributions will have trouble getting the hardware |
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environment correct. |
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They just can't move fast enough to deal with the latest and greatest, |
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or even the tried |
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and true older stuff. Their Linux kernels have to try to please |
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everybody and deal in |
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a reasonable manner with what comes from the computer system makers. |
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This requires |
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them to put everything (and the kitchen sink!) in the mix, and hope it |
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holds together. |
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Gentoo, encouraging the building of a customized kernel for the hardware |
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being used, |
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gets the advantages of clean and lean and best speed available. |
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Gentoo has become my favorite distribution since it is the most |
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customizeable and doesn't |
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force the users to accept too much crap along with the most useable |
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bits. The documentation |
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provides relatively clear explanations of "why" in addition to the |
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"how" The Gentoo Handbook |
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is one of the most accessible install documents around. |
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I've been using UNIX since 1977, and Linux/GNU from its invention. |
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Gentoo provies the |
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right balance between having the good stuff easily installable, and |
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being able to configure |
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exactly what is wanted. |
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Have fun with Gentoo. |
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|
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-- |
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G.Wolfe Woodbury |
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aka redwolfe (fedora proventester :-) |
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