Hi, i am thinking of switching to gentoo, and wanted to ask if its a good idea. Anything i should look out for?
Btw im coming Form arch
Thx :3
It’s thanks to Gentoo that I’ve been a Linux sysadmin for over 20 years. That being said, I’ve since moved to Arch and then Debian.
Some points: On modern systems you won’t really notice any speed improvements from custom compiling the packages. Apart from maybe some numbers in articial benchmarks. On old systems with very limited resources, you can eke out a bit of more performance. Back when I was still using Gentoo, my proudest moment was getting a Pentium 1 with 96MB Ram (Yes, MB!), which was a gift of a colleague to his broke brother, into quite a useable little machine. Browsing, listening to MP3s, email, some simple games.
I also noticed a noticable improvment in performance in a 400mhz Athlon I had setup for my mom.
That being said, I was only able to do this, because I was using distCC to distribute compiling across several machines to keep compile times to a somewhat sane level. Also, I was doing a unpaid internship at the time, so I basically had all the time in the world, so compile times didn’t really bother me.
I had tried to use linux before. After Windows XP crashed one too many times. I decided to see how things work on Linux. I initially chose a “easy to use” desktop distro. (Mandrake Linux). Got everything setup. Even 3D Accelaration worked. Everything was really nice and fun. Then I tried to tinker under the hood and I broke something that I couldn’t figure out how to fix. So I thought, maybe I need to find something even easier, so I chose Suse Linux. Same story. Set everything up. Desktop working, 3D working, etc… start to tinker, break something, back to square zero.
Then I decided to change my approach and choose the hardest distro. The choice was between Linux from Scratch and Gentoo. Linux from Scratch sounded waay to painful, so I chose Gentoo.
It took me 3 days until I had a somewhat working system without a desktop. Then another 3 days until I had a desktop running Fluxbox.
But the learning experience was invaluable. Being forced to use the CLI and not only that, but more or less configure everything by hand. It takes aways the fear of the CLI and you get a feel for where everything is located in the filesystem, which config files do what, etc… It demystifies the whole thing substantially.
You suddenly realize that nothing is hidden from you. You are not prevented from accessing anything or tinkering with it.
The downside is that Gentoo takes a lot of time and effort to maintain. But the learning potential is invaluable. Especially if you use it to also start doing little projects in linux. e.g. File server, router, firewall, etc…
Me knowing Gentoo, got my first real job as Linux Sysadmin and before long I was training rookie Admins. And the first thing I always did with them was to run them through the Gentoo bootcamp.
Once they go to grips with that, everything else wasn’t that difficult.
@Twakyr I’ve been a hardcore gentoo user/fan for 20+ years, I thought I’d never be able to use anything else till I started playing with Nix this year. The granular configurability of each individual package has yet been unmatched for me in any other distro till Nix. For #gentoo though, I’d highly recommend taking great care in tailoring your
/etc/portage/make.conf, setup/etc/portage/repos.conf/gentoo.confwithsync-type = git, and use/etc/portage/package.{use,mask,unmask,accept_keywords}as directories for individual packages. I tend to keep a/etc/portage/package.mask/failedfile for upgrade blockages fer me to unfuck after aemerge -avuDUN @worldsucceeds.Happy with gentoo moved back after 14 years away, (ran 2003->2009, 2023->now) I like it because I can easily and sustainably make anything a package and build it as minimal as I like, along with easily modify packages (ebuilds) and flags as needed.
I loved how tailored to me was Gentoo. But as time passes and your hardware gets older, the compilation times get longer and longer. That’s what made me to do the hop
I’ve heard some time ago that now Gentoo is offering more pre-compiled packages. But I don’t know the extent. libstd, gcc and libreoffice were the worst offenders in my time
If you’re going to be compiling your own kernel (or now Gentoo ships with pre-compiled ones too?) my word of advice would be “don’t forget to compile in the filesystem support”
When I was trying Gentoo I very much didn’t forget, I went I want them all. But I ended at my first attempt. It was bootable, but I was missing network drivers, and on old Core 2 Duo the compilation already took 3 days.
Yeah, with time the compile times only get longer and longer
Seeing how you take great pride in mentioning the distro you use (by the way) I fully recommend using Gentoo so you can one-up those Arch peasants. That is about all the practical use you’re going to get out of it though.
Why do you want switch to Gentoo in the first place? I think its a good idea if you want to customize and build lot of applications yourself. Besides heavy hitters like browsers or the Kernel. So only you can answer if this is a good idea for you.
I thought input and experience from other people would be a gold idea since i dont want to spend a ton of time on my Linux install just to notice that it is unrelyable and bloated.
How is it bloated if you decide what to put on? Gentoo isn’t a traditional distribution, its what you make it to. Still you have to answer for yourself why you even want to switch to Gentoo. And if all the extra work for compilation is worth it. Do you even want to compile everything and customize the compilation process? If not, maybe Gentoo is not for you. That’s the thing. Only you can answer that.
Would be helpful hearing about WHY you want to switch if you’re already happy.
Im not, arch is a nightmare for me. I try to installiert something over pacman: ERROR. I try to fix the error, doesnt work because it needs certain shared library files… That i can not find.
But thats not the only thing, somehow the Servers are allways down and its not a nice little challange anymore. More like a piece of code designed to make me miserable.
I hope thats different in gentoo :)
Why do you like Arch? If you want the minimalism but you don’t want to compile everything yourself, I’d recommend Void Linux. It’s a lovely little distro; I only don’t daily drive it because of less package availability than Arch+AUR, and I couldn’t be bothered to package so many things myself. But I don’t remember their servers ever being down when I used it.
I’m sorry for being blunt, but Arch is very easy and plug-and-play like, if you’re having these sorts of issues my guess is that you’re not familiar with Linux and are doing stuff “wrong” (e.g. installing drivers from a website). Gentoo is a LOT more complicated and will hold your hand a lot less than Arch, I recommend you try something more beginning friendly like Mint, Fedora or Bazzite, learn the basics, learn the “Linux way” of doing stuff, then try Arch again, then, when you have a better reason than because I broke it, you can try Gentoo.
This is not a “you’re too dumb to do it” answer, but imagine someone who’s having issues driving a shift stick car asking how it’s like to rebuild the engine. You’re capable of rebuilding the engine yourself, you’re able to use Gentoo, just not now, learn to walk before you try to bungee jump.
What the FUCK? are you saying i should switch from an os i can customize to a god damn terrabyte oft blaot? I know that i COULD fix it. I know how. But i just want an os i can tell what to do and then it does that, and ONLY THAT
Why do you think Mint/Ubuntu/Fedora/Bazzite are not that though? It seems you don’t know how to ask your system to do stuff because otherwise your Arch install wouldn’t break. Plus I bet that the default installation of any of those distros occupies around the same disk space than what you have now.
Honestly you read like an angsty teen who read Arch is advanced and wants to be 1337 by using it, a few years back you would have been using Kali. Let me tell you a secret, Arch is not advanced, it’s a very easy straightforward distro, it just starts from a mostly clean slate, but if you’re using gnome/kde/cinnamon or any DE that distros come prepacked with its just as bloated with extra steps.
I know, that arch isnt hard, its too easy. I installed Linux to challenge myself. Arch WAS a callange. Now i want something New. And harder.
Btw. You can choose what bloat you want to have in your system (only DE vor goodies too)
It’s easy but at the same time your system is always broke? Either you were lying there or are now.
Btw. You can choose what bloat you want to have in your system (only DE vor goodies too)
Precisely my point, you keep mentioning Arch as being Bloat free and complaining that Fedora or others are bloated.
sounds like you might need to run reflector, and then update all packages
Well, to be honest, you’re choosing the two most difficult distros to manage.
It sounds like you’re kind of new to the area…why not just use Fedora?
Because i want a callange, and not a big pile oft bloat
That’s…an opinion that is not backed by any facts at all. What in the world are you talking about with “bloat” 🤣
So you’re a newbie, and making lots of wild claims and taking awfully opinionated positions in this thread all over the place. I don’t think you want help, so just be on your way 👍
Why do i need bluetooth compatibility if i dont usw it, why wifi?
If i dont want help, why would i ask?
Because they occupy so small disk size that they don’t matter and it’s easier to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I wouldn’t call hardware support bloat ware.
Also, just so you know, Arch has Bluetooth and wifi compatibility even if you don’t install the packages, Gentoo does not. You would need to recompile your kernel with the correct configuration to enable those for your specific card.
Arch is just as bloated as Fedora, Mint or Bazzite. Hell, my Arch is a lot more bloated than any of those. This is Linux, the system is as bloated as you want it to be, but also having stuff installed doesn’t necessarily causes your computer to be slow, programs only execute when you tell them to.
Bluetooth is a fucking security risk, wifi too.
I dont care how bloated your os is. Also BLAOT IS WHY IM SWITCHING
Do you know about limited disk space? Cuz that doesnt seem to be a problem for you, maybe it is for tho? Who knows?
Are you looking to learn linux more or have a easy living experience, or what is the goal? If you want to get to know linux, learn how to compile a kernel, make your own initramfs and such, then: absolutely! If you want a stable easily maintainable system, then… maybe not. Like it is possible, and Gentoo is very stable, but if you are just starting, then you may make choices that do break when you upgrade. With some experience, this will go away, but expect some downtime in the beginning.
I want a learning experience and a challenge. And customise EVERYTHING!
Then go for it! Gentoo is a wonderful option for that goal.
I’d probably recommend LFS over Gentoo for that—you do more “yourself” and I found the LFS instructions easier to follow than the Gentoo install guide. And I’d say I learned more about Linux from LFS than from installing Gentoo. But LFS was done over about a month or so for me (not nonstop ofc, just in my free time) whereas Gentoo was 1 or 2 days.
Its fun to learn how the system works, but after the 4-5th time trying to install something real quick, and there’s an error in your package.use or something, it gets a lot less fun.
If you have the time and patience, its really cool. But I just want a web browser without having to edit 3+ text files to allow it to work.
No advantage over Arch IMO.
If you want to play with it, setup a VM.
Gentoo user since forever.
The most consistent and long time solid distro, IMHO.
I use it everywhere I can, from servers to laptops. It’s so flexible and predictable that I simply love it.
Nowadays emerging stuff is so fast that I wonder why bother with binary packages at all. Once, when compiling Firefox took DAYS well… But in today’s hardware, meh.
;)
if you have the time for it, then go for it.
Keep in mind and i’m sure you already know this but you have to compile everything yourself so it WILL take time. I have it on a sort of hobby machine and I remember just getting Firefox to compile/install took awhile. The benefit of this is you get an extremely custom tailored system for yourself. But like I said it’s going to take you awhile to get to that point. If you want something immediate to daily drive and want more of a custom system as opposed to Arch then maybe give NixOS a shot. I switched from Arch to NixOS on my main machine and I love it, won’t use anything else. But if you’re patient and have the time to dedicate to Gentoo then go for it, it’s fun to play around with on a Saturday afternoon.
If you want something immediate to daily drive and want more of a custom system as opposed to Arch then maybe give NixOS a shot
IMO the main customization part of Gentoo is that you can compile the world without the libs you don’t want to have. With NixOS (AFAIK) being also package-based, how can it offer more custom system than Arch?
As a noob to Linux, reading Gentoo Handbook & Arch Wiki has made me not only understand a PC better in terms of software management of hardware but understand Linux. I am nowhere near being able to actually use Gentoo. I installed Arch once, that been far enough for me with Linux. I know the people that wrote those guides need to be funny for Presidency because this is how we need to run the world. LOL
Does seem like being funny helps with running for president these days
Comments complaining how everything takes time to compile in Gentoo are kind of funny, do you really need everything to be installed asap?
That being said, Gentoo indeed is not for everyone. I’ve been using it for +15 years and am really happy with it - almost zero maintenance and it’s super stable. The crux is the time it takes to be installed and people hold a weird grudge against it just for that.
But at the same time there are more distros oferring pretty much the same, i.e. your own arch.
