Gentoo linux

[Hooper]

Sounds logical.

[tamarian]

So then what is the benefit of stage 3 over say Suse Linux which only takes about 30 minutes to install?

Still not sure why people want to spend hours and days installing an OS and software so their computer is useable. Anything more than an hour for an OS is not acceptable in my book.

The benefit would be having control over your software updates. Following stage 3, from there on, you still get to use the portage/emerge system for adding or upgrading software from source code.

Using Suse, Mandrake, Fedora, Debian, etc. still gives you the benefit of binary updates to your software, which isn't bad at all, and would be enough for most users.

Gento just goes a bit extra, by compiling the source exactly as you want it, using your current libraries.

Another alternative, which I use a lot on my servers, is install any distro, don't care which (since not many hosts have Gentoo CD's), then I uninstall everything I depend on (plus the things I don't need), Apache, PHP, MySQL, email, etc., then download them as tar balls, patch them if needed (like Apache number of MaxClients) and compile from source, exactly how I want it.

None of this is necessary, it just offers more control of options, features and added optimization for those who prefer to do it.

[Hooper]

Suse installed a Kernal optimized for my CPU, allows me to pick what packages are installed and so forth.

Suse is a good distro as well. Dunno about the Novell/Suse deal there but Suse always had quite a bit going for it. As far as compiling programs.... They just work better from source in my opinion with less irritations due to dependencies. Only takes a few minutes or so to compile a program. Unless of course you still have your 8080 for the purpose.

[Jerry]

Looked over the manual, and was going to download a live cd iso, when i get the following options

Index of /gentoo/releases/x86/2004.0/livecd

athlon-xp/
i686/
pentium3/
pentium4/
universal/
x86/

Which of these do I get for a Intel Xeon cpu? The p4 one, the i686 one, the Universal or x86??

Regards,
WildEye

I would go for : i686/

[Jerry]

Didn't say I didn't like any benefits, I asked what the benefits were.

Suse installed a Kernal optimized for my CPU, allows me to pick what packages are installed and so forth. So what benefits are there in spending hours compiling and installing software?

I meant to type "don't like"

The benefit is choice and having a machine complied properly.

[WildEye]

RTM ?

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook.xml

I found the documentation rather good, especaily for installing.

Looked over the manual, and was going to download a live cd iso, when i get the following options

Index of /gentoo/releases/x86/2004.0/livecd

athlon-xp/
i686/
pentium3/
pentium4/
universal/
x86/

Which of these do I get for a Intel Xeon cpu? The p4 one, the i686 one, the Universal or x86??

Regards,
WildEye

[Wayne Luke]

Just because you like the benefits doesn't mean that it isn't any good or has application.

Didn't say I didn't like any benefits, I asked what the benefits were.

Suse installed a Kernal optimized for my CPU, allows me to pick what packages are installed and so forth. So what benefits are there in spending hours compiling and installing software?

[Wayne Luke]

I think it has changed since you've tried it. An example being RH 5. Ick.

Never tried RH 5 myself. On the desktop the earliest version of Redhat that I tried was 8. Also tried 9. Other distros that I played around with are Knoppix, Mandrake 8 and 9 (neither installed properly on my machine), Suse 8 and 9, and Yellowdog. Gave up after that but I do have a friend who uses Slackware and recommends it. She uses Gnome though and I wasn't impressed with Gnome at all.

[Jerry]

So then what is the benefit of stage 3 over say Suse Linux which only takes about 30 minutes to install?

Still not sure why people want to spend hours and days installing an OS and software so their computer is useable. Anything more than an hour for an OS is not acceptable in my book.

Maybe its horses for courses ?

If you don't want to do a stage one do one of the other stages, just depends on how much control you like over your machine. If you aren't bothered as to the efficiency of your machine and are impatient then use a different stage or distro.

Just because you like the benefits doesn't mean that it isn't any good or has application.

[Jerry]

Why don't they just be like most other distro's and supply ISO's for download? Some total Gentoo geeks may say that it would be taking out the fun, but i'm sure most normal non gentoo geeks wouldn't call spending a day installing an OS fun.

They do :

http://www.linuxhelp.net/isos/#gentoo

As they say themselves its about choice.

[Hooper]

So then what is the benefit of stage 3 over say Suse Linux which only takes about 30 minutes to install?

Still not sure why people want to spend hours and days installing an OS and software so their computer is useable. Anything more than an hour for an OS is not acceptable in my book.

I agree. That is why I chose slackware after trying the multitude of distro's. Simple, installs in a half hour (or sooner with a bit of knowledge), just runs, doesn't crash, up for days. And boots faster than any opsys I've tried. I do recompile the latest kernel from kernel.org though. Another reason I chose to remain with slackware was "source" compilation. No rpm's. I cannot stand rpm's although slack will allow installations of rpm, it's not recommended.

For keeping your box up2date I use swaret. swaret --update, swaret --upgrade, swaret --list, and for checking dependancies swaret --dep.

Simple and effective. Since the latest 2.6 kernels, I almost had to give up on freebsd except for a server scenario.

The only thing I haven't been able to get running at all is tripwire. The GCC release is different than needed and it won't compile. Other than that, no problems. Just upgraded the desktop to KDE 3.2. Love it, although occasionally for a speedier solution I use blackbox.

vB Dev's must be fully aware of what vB3 looks like through browsers like FireFox and Konqueror. Real nice.

I think it has changed since you've tried it. An example being RH 5. Ick.

[Wayne Luke]

You don't have to spend an entire day on it if you choose stage3. It took 2 hours for me to install it in stage3 on my laptop.

So then what is the benefit of stage 3 over say Suse Linux which only takes about 30 minutes to install?

Still not sure why people want to spend hours and days installing an OS and software so their computer is useable. Anything more than an hour for an OS is not acceptable in my book.

[Icheb]

You don't have to spend an entire day on it if you choose stage3. It took 2 hours for me to install it in stage3 on my laptop.

[RichM]

Why don't they just be like most other distro's and supply ISO's for download? Some total Gentoo geeks may say that it would be taking out the fun, but i'm sure most normal non gentoo geeks wouldn't call spending a day installing an OS fun.

[Jerry]

Damn, another 4 hour download!

RTM ?

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook.xml

I found the documentation rather good, especaily for installing.