[clue-tech] Taking the Gentoo Plunge?

[Ken MacFerrin]

katanacb at comcast.net wrote:
> Ok,
> 
> I'm thinking about taking the Gentoo plunge, and I've read *lots* of information about how difficult it is to setup (or not), how time consuming it is to setup and administer (or not), how patches bork the entire system (or not).  I'm not afraid to setup Gentoo on my system(s), I've used linux for years and years, but I wanted to get some sort of idea from local guys who actually RUN the distribution what their experience has been like.
> 
> If I do this I'm going to do it on 2 laptops, and 1 desktop (which doubles as a fileserver for things like MP3s, etc).  I prefer KDE to gnome but I can be converted.  I've most recently run Ubuntu, SuSE before that but I've used pretty much every distro out there over the years.
> 
> So, for those of you out there who run Gentoo, what's your experience been like?  Are the rumours true?  I've downloaded the recent 2007.0 release and I can tell you that the live DVD seems to perform better than hosted systems on my machine (I know it's strange, but it's true) and I did do a gentoo install 3-4 years ago, but just got frustrated after borking my install a few times.
> 
> Cheers,
> Chris

I've been running Gentoo on my main desktop for about 4 years now.  I
started because at the time there was no other system that combined such
a robust package manager (emerge) with access to cutting (bleeding) edge
packages.  I would still argue that the vast packaging and support
ecosystem is a leading strength, but others (aka ubuntu) have make
significant strides here as well recently.

As far as the install, it's true, in earlier days doing a stage 1
install you could take forever for the initial build, but nowadays the
stage 3 install is recommended which only takes a minimum of initial
compiling to get up and running.  I also recommend using the "-bin"
versions for huge apps like openoffice so you don't suffer hours of
compiling for an update.  Some thing just don't need to be "optimized"
for any sane reason.  I can usually get a basic, clean desktop install
up and running within a couple hours now.

Stability did take a dip around a year ago but those issues seem to have
been worked through and things have been solid for me for quite a while.

Overall, if you really want the flexibility to get under the hood and
tweak everything about your system then it just can't be beat.  Another
thing I've enjoyed is the basic lack of a release cycle.  Gentoo takes
more of a continuous evolution approach of regular updates so there's no
single "upgrade" pains from release to release.. The caveat is you will
occasionally have some maintenance to do when a package needs
reconfigured due to a major update to that application; and this can
sometimes happen after a normal update when you didn't really plan time
to deal with it.

Based on my experiences, my recommended prerequisites would be:

1) Make sure it's a decently powerful machine.  This is not the right
distro for an old, underpowered laptop. (Xubuntu is great for this though).

2) Have some experience running linux.  It's not the newbies distro.

3) Take the time to read the package manager docs.  "emerge" can do all
sorts of tricks if you take the time to learn the more advanced options.

4) Do a stage 3 install to get up an running.  Once you have a stable
system you can always go back and super-duper optimize your flags and
then recompile everything while you go so something else with your day.

-Ken