[clue-tech] Distro musings

[Ken MacFerrin]

> Gentoo- my favorite for years

Why keep writing?  You hit the nail on the head right here.  Since
trying Gentoo several years ago I have yet to find a superior desktop
distro.  I wouldn't run it on older hardware and will often use Debian
for servers, but with Gentoo as a desktop you get:
1. drop dead easy package management (emerge packagename)

2. the latest and greatest software plus the ability to install 3rd
party software using the package manager (emerge googleearth ut2004
acroread)

3. native support for 64bit but still the ability to run 32bit only
binaries to support things such as flash..  also pretty easy to setup a
32bit chroot environment for further compatibility.

4. smooth integration with virtually any window manager (KDE, gnome,
fluxbox, XFCE, e17, etc).

5. ultimate choice and customization from the kernel up..  setup your
USE flags once and you're set.

6. great online community (forums.gentoo.org, bugs.gentoo.org)

Granted.. Gentoo is certainly not the quickest for initial setup and
install, but that's really not something I plan on doing often on my
workstation so I wouldn't put high on my ranking criteria.  Gentoo is
not the distro I'd recommend for a linux newbie, but for an even
moderately experienced user, it's the desktop distro to beat.

-Ken