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On Friday 02 Dec 2011 14:41:29 LinuxIsOne wrote: |
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> Hello, |
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> |
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> Does one have the experience for the following: |
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> |
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> gentoo vs openSUSE |
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> |
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> for ease of use, better navigation, applications working perfectly |
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> without any crash(es), better up gradations, smooth working, |
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> etc..etc... |
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> |
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> Best Regards. |
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|
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If you want *exactly* what OpenSUSE have included in their distro then |
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OpenSUSE is for you. Some applications and the whole system will run slower |
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than Gentoo. Invariably some applications could experience crashes and what |
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not - any distro would from time to time have such problems and may not be |
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distro specific anyway, but application specific. |
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|
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If you want to include additional applications or versions of applications |
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that OpenSUSE repos do not cater for, then you may run into dependency hell. |
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At best, some apps will just not install or work as intended. At worst you |
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could break the underlying distro if you try hard enough and have to |
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reinstall. |
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|
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With Gentoo you have higher flexibility on what you install and portage is |
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definitely thousands times better than YaST, in terms of configurabilty. You |
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will still get the odd application that is buggy, but as a rule your system |
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will run lighter and faster because each binary is compiled from source with |
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the CFALGS and USE flags that you have specified for your system. On the other |
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hand it will take some time and effort to keep your Gentoo up to date. |
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|
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Another difference between OpenSUSE and Gentoo is that you will not need to |
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reinstall Gentoo to get the latest desktop, or init system or what-ever system |
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wide upgrade is next. With OpenSUSE upgrades imply a reinstallation (unless |
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YaST got cleverer since the last time I used it). Invariably you will also |
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never need to reinstall Gentoo to fix any breakages - most problems you may |
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come across you will learn how to recover from with clever use of portage. |
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|
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In conclusion: |
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|
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If you prefer quick installation and easy/quick updates, but with limited |
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choice on what gets installed and how it is configured, and the OpenSUSE suite |
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of packages will meet your application needs comprehensively, then OpenSUSE is |
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a well polished distro that will fit the bill. |
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|
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If you value higher performance and a much higher degree of configurability, |
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then Gentoo will be your choice; but that comes at the expense of a |
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protracted installation process (especially if you have not done this before) |
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and some admin time on a regular basis to keep your system and applications up |
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to date. |
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|
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With Gentoo you will be *forced* to learn a lot to install your system and |
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keep it running. With OpenSUSE the learning curve will likely be considerably |
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flatter. |
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|
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It would be advisable to try them both out in LiveCDs (or even install them in |
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VMs) to see which you feel more comfortable working with. For a Gentoo based |
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LiveCD you could try Sabayon: http://www.sabayon.org/ and this may also be |
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used for a quick (binary) installation of a Gentoo-like system. |
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|
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HTH. |
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-- |
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Regards, |
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Mick |
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