Pandu Poluan wrote:
Indeed! Especially control freaks like me :-)
But seriously, I personally found Gentoo to be the most logical Linux
distro. Yes, the initial barrier (installation) is daunting, so to
speak, but after doing it successfully, one can immediately intuit
"what's going on". Installing and configuring other packages becomes
piece of cake.
The logical way of Gentoo even extends to its packages. For instance,
packages that are meant to be run as services/daemons will *certainly*
have a pair of files in conf.d and init.d. Customizable environs are
in env.d and profile.d. And so on.
I've used Linux exclusively as servers, and I have dabbled with Red
Hat, CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, and Arch, but Gentoo wins hands down for
its logicality.
Not to mention that I can customize my servers exactly to my
specifications, instead of having to put up with cruft that the distro
maintainer feel as a "must have". Case in point : how many distros
allow you to choose which cron daemon you want to use?
Another plus point is the almost complete devel tools provided out of
the box: the gcc suite. Now if I happen across an open source project
that hasn't made it yet to the portage tree, I can just download and
compile it myself.
Related to that, is the great job Portage did regarding dependency
hell. Since I am no longer hostage to the whims of the distro
maintainer re: versions of libraries installed, if a program needs a
library that's newer than the current 'stable' version, I can just
keyword the needed version and compile away.
Rgds,
This is true but the OP may not really need this type of control. Most
people, newcomers especially, just want something that is easy and sort
of learn a bit and see if Linux is for them. Some people just aren't
wanting to be geeky at all. They want a OS that will take care of
everything for them. In that case, Gentoo is not going to be worth the
effort.
Me, I have a Desktop with no real special needs. I just wanted to be
able to learn about Linux, not have some bunch of junk that I never ever
intend to use installed and be able to update without standing on my
head with my small toe up one nostril trying to jump hoops. Mandrake
had a horrible update process and I got tired of it quick. If you could
insert CD, install and not need to update anything, then you were good
to go. If you install and then need to update something, oooops. Flip
upside down and assume the position.
Gentoo does have a lot of good points, especially for me. It is just
not going to be easy and hand holding at first for a newcomer. The OP
will learn a lot and as I pointed out, it can be addicting. Just turn
off the quiet output setting and see what Linux is really all about. ;-)
Dale
:-) :-)
--
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how
you interpreted my words!
