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On Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:16:19 +0100 |
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Alex Schuster <wonko@×××××××××.org> wrote: |
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> > No flames from me. I agree. I wouldn't recommend Gentoo to |
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> > someone who has no, or even very little, Linux experience. Looking |
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> > back, I was one heck of a noob when I installed Gentoo. It had to |
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> > be fools luck that I got it done. Then again, the docs were, and |
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> > still are, really good. You can dang near copy and paste the |
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> > commands. |
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> |
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> I know some people who had very few experience with Linux. But they |
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> succeeded in installing Gentoo. And they learnt a lot by doing so. If |
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> you installed Gentoo, you know Linux. |
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I think we all know at least one person like that. Myself, I've |
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trained more than just a few (the training salesperson had a knack for |
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signing up people who had the smarts to cope with Gentoo). |
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But for every one like that, there are at least 10 more that can't, and |
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so often in this game I find that others are just not able to spot those |
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10. And worse, the 10 often give up and go back to Windows. |
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So the question is not really "can the user do it?", it is rather "how |
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will *this* person in front of me right now be best served?" |
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An equally good question is "does this person right now asking me a |
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question have what it takes to dive into Gentoo blindly, and swim?" |
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The answers to those questions are what should guide you. |
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> That's what I like about Gentoo. You know what you are doing, and many |
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> integral parts are easier to understand than with another distro, |
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> where things are hidden by GUI config tools. |
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Precisely, which is why RedHat is great for a Windows sysadmin who |
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really does want a plug-n-play distro. |
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Debian is great for people who want to tinker safely - you get the |
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plug-n-play of a binary distro and you also get build tools that don't |
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explode in your face every time you try do something that is not |
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exactly 100% TheTrueRedHatWay. |
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> But if you just want to have a Linux to play around with, go with a |
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> binary distro. You can install Gentoo later if you like, even while |
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> using the Linux you already have. If you have some space onthe disk to |
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> add other partitions. Did I mention yet that LVM is nice for this? |
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Don't forget VirtualBox/VMWare/KVM/Xen and everything else like them :-) |
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-- |
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Alan McKinnnon |
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alan.mckinnon@×××××.com |
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