schlitt.info - php, photography and private stuff
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:Author: 		Tobias Schlitt
:Date:			Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:29:46 +0100
:Revision: 		1
:Copyright:		CC by-nc-sa


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Testing Gentoo
==============

:Description:
    Today I'll try out Gentoo Linux. Until now I used Debian on all of my
    machines. Of course, Debian stable (no more Woody, but now Sarge) is
    always for me the best choice for servers, but maybe Debian unstable is
    not the best solution for desktops and notebooks. I usually installed
    Knoppix on those kinds of machines, to get a preconfigured X and hardware
    recognition. Of course the initial installation works fine, but all
    further upgrades seem to break the system more and more, I think because
    of the customizations Knoppix has in respect to pure Debian.

Today I'll try out `Gentoo Linux`__. Until now I used `Debian`__ on all of my
machines. Of course, Debian stable (no more Woody, but now Sarge) is always
for me the best choice for servers, but maybe Debian unstable is not the best
solution for desktops and notebooks. I usually installed `Knoppix`__ on those
kinds of machines, to get a preconfigured X and hardware recognition. Of
course the initial installation works fine, but all further upgrades seem to
break the system more and more, I think because of the customizations Knoppix
has in respect to pure Debian.

.. __: http://www.gentoo.org
.. __: http://www.debian.org
.. __: http://www.knoppix.org

So, for now, I'll try to install Gentoo and look what it's like. Of course
installing Gentoo can last pretty long, because of the compilation processes,
so it maybe that I'm offline until Monday or something like that...


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Trackbacks
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Comments
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- Jacques Marneweck at Fri, 10 Jun 2005 13:30:19 +0200

  Have you taken a look at [http://www.freebsd.org/ FreeBSD] for your servers?
   I'm running FreeBSD on all the servers that I admin. ;)

- Toby at Fri, 10 Jun 2005 14:15:29 +0200

  Hmmm... always wanted to try out FreeBSD. The problem is, that I'm now used
  to Debian and know pretty much how things are done... Of course, my Debian
  Server runs stable now for over 2 years, so the chances are not good, that I
  switch that soon... Of course, I will try FreeBSD on my dev server, when I
  set it up again next time! :)

  Thanks for the reminder!

- Gaud at Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:20:07 +0200

  I am using Linux since almost 8 years now and I had the occasion to try a
  lot of distributions and see them evoluate. I am now using Ubuntu Linux.
  It's based on debian but it's aimed at the desktop/workstation use. It has
  great hardware support. I use it on my laptop and home machine. I got
  software hibernation right out of the box..

  I also tried Gentoo for almost a year, It's a really great distribution that
  you can customize to your need. The problem with it, is that you have to own
  a monster machine that can handle hours and hours of compilation, this is
  not always perfect for a workstation. 

  For Gentoo, if you don't already knows about distcc, I strongly suggest that
  you take a look.

  to conclude, take a look at Ubuntu..

  Daniel Gauthier

- Andreas at Tue, 14 Jun 2005 11:32:13 +0200

  If you don't want to wait, use precompiled GRP-packages (Gentoo Reference
  Plattform) and use Stage 3:

  http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/2005.0/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=1#doc_chap2

- Gaud at Tue, 14 Jun 2005 18:36:02 +0200

  I see that GRP doesn't always provides the latest version. Is using GRP give
  you the ability to customize your system (example: -kde +gnome) ?

- Andreas at Wed, 15 Jun 2005 00:06:31 +0200

  You get new Version 2-3 times a year with every new gentoo release. The next
  release (2005.1) is planned for august: 

  http://www.beejaysworld.de/archives/34-Preparing-Gentoo-2005.1.html

  You con find the following packages on the package-cd:

  http://gentoo.osuosl.org/releases/x86/2005.0/packagecd/CONTENTS

  And it's right, you cannot customize your system as good as compiling
  everything yourself. So what you can do is installing really large packages
  (X, KDE, OpenOffice, Mozilla Firefox...) from GRP-CD, and install smaller
  packages (with special USE-Flags) from source.

  If you want full control you have to install everything from source - the
  choice is up to you ;-)