Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user

[Mark Knecht]

On 10/1/06, Terry Eck <terry_eck@×××××××.net> wrote:
> I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0.
> I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting
> from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of
> weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve
> on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed
> using gentoo before I install it.
>
> Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me.
>
> Terry Eck
>

Hi Terry,
   I'm a non-developer, non-sysadmin, Linux-user type. I was pretty
scared of Gentoo when I started a few years ago. (2002 or 2003?)
Actually, it turned out to not be that difficult once you got into the
swing of things. One thing I think you'll appreciate once you get used
to it is the quality of the Gentoo documentation. It's really great
stuff and seldom leads you astray. Read it carefully and you'll
usually get things right pretty quickly.

   As for installing Gentoo, since you are building most everything
from scratch it does take a few days the first time you do it to get
to a usable desktop with applications installed and running. It gets
faster over time but my machines always take me a day at least before
I'm running a browser inside of Gnome. Read and follow the Quick
Install guide and it will work. Use a test machine if you have one for
your first install.

   Once converted to Gentoo you'll love that you never really do
upgrades. Just updates. Portage is really nice at keeping things up to
date.

   Run stable packages (i.e. - not ~x86 or ~amd64) unless you need a
specific package, at least to start. In my mind there is little value
to running a testing package unless you have a specific problem or
need a specific new feature. Testing packages become stable package
pretty quickly so you'll have it in a few weeks anyway.

   I must say that EVERYTHING I learned about Gentoo that mattered
came from the generous folks on this list. Read the docs and then feel
free to ask questions. Answers here seem to be the least
confrontational, most informative of pretty much any Linux list I've
ever subscribed to.

   Get GMail or some email client that is good at threading
conversation. Email traffic on this list gets a bit high at time.
GMail makes it work well for me.

   Keep in mind that if dummies like me can make Gentoo work, and I
have - my wife, my son, my 78 year old father and 77 year old mother
all run Gentoo now - then I'm sure you'll have no trouble at all.

Hope this helps,
Mark
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