The PokéCommunity Forums

The PokéCommunity Forums (https://www.pokecommunity.com/index.php)
-   Off-Topic (https://www.pokecommunity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23)
-   -   Are there any other Gentoo Linux users here? (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=241237)

Shining Arcanine January 17th, 2011 1:19 AM

Are there any other Gentoo Linux users here?
 
I stopped using Windows a year ago and switched to Gentoo Linux. Since then, I have also tried other operating systems like FreeBSD in virtual machines, but my main OS has been Gentoo Linux.

Are there any other Gentoo Linux users here? What about Linux users in general? Expanding a bit further, are there any UNIX users here? Also, if anyone was unaware, Mac OS X is a UNIX OS.

Archer January 17th, 2011 2:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shining Arcanine (Post 6403416)
I stopped using Windows a year ago and switched to Gentoo Linux. Since then, I have also tried other operating systems like FreeBSD in virtual machines, but my main OS has been Gentoo Linux.

Are there any other Gentoo Linux users here? What about Linux users in general? Expanding a bit further, are there any UNIX users here? Also, if anyone was unaware, Mac OS X is a UNIX OS.

I use most OSs to some degree. My Desktop run Windows for gaming, otherwise, my laptop runs Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

My older Dual Pentium 3 rig runs Arch Linux with an Xfce WM.

I stopped using Ubuntu because it's become horribly bloated, IMO.

Shining Arcanine January 17th, 2011 3:56 AM

An interesting tibbit that I learned recently from people in #gentoo-chat on FreeNode is that some people consider Arch Linux to be a fork of Gentoo Linux. Apparently, the Gentoo Linux developers had kick Arch Linux developers from #gentoo on FreeNode when Arch Linux was first being developed because they kept asking for help.

Anyway, you should try out Gentoo Linux at some point. It can be configured to have little to no bloat.

Archer January 17th, 2011 3:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shining Arcanine (Post 6403493)
An interesting tibbit that I learned recently from people in #gentoo-chat on FreeNode is that some people consider Arch Linux to be a fork of Gentoo Linux. Apparently, the Gentoo Linux developers had kick Arch Linux developers from #gentoo on FreeNode when Arch Linux was first being developed because they kept asking for help.

Anyway, you should try out Gentoo Linux at some point. It can be configured to have little to no bloat.

They're so customisable that it comes down to preference. At which point the Distro with which I share a name gets better treatment :P

twocows January 18th, 2011 8:18 AM

I'm not big on Gentoo. The only reason to use it over Arch is if you're insane about optimizing flags at compile time and such, which isn't nearly as important as you'd think. Maybe if you're running on a Pentium II and want to get the most out of your 450 MHz, I can understand, but it's a big waste of time in my opinion.

I primarily use Windows, myself. The biggest advantage to using Windows is just how much choice you have in software. I don't think most new GNU/Linux fans realize just how many options you have on Windows. I actually downloaded and installed the GNU coreutils for Windows, which significantly enhanced the usability of the Windows command line. A large amount of software available on GNU/Linux is available on Windows in some form. The converse isn't necessarily true (there's Wine, but that's a crapshoot).

Shining Arcanine January 19th, 2011 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twocows (Post 6405436)
I'm not big on Gentoo. The only reason to use it over Arch is if you're insane about optimizing flags at compile time and such, which isn't nearly as important as you'd think. Maybe if you're running on a Pentium II and want to get the most out of your 450 MHz, I can understand, but it's a big waste of time in my opinion.

I primarily use Windows, myself. The biggest advantage to using Windows is just how much choice you have in software. I don't think most new GNU/Linux fans realize just how many options you have on Windows. I actually downloaded and installed the GNU coreutils for Windows, which significantly enhanced the usability of the Windows command line. A large amount of software available on GNU/Linux is available on Windows in some form. The converse isn't necessarily true (there's Wine, but that's a crapshoot).

In my opinion, the biggest reason to use Gentoo Linux is its ability to be easily customized. The entire distribution is designed around that premise and unfortunately, the fact that you can customize it to be very quick has given people the impression that Gentoo Linux is only useful if you want a fast system. Some of the key features of Gentoo Linux are its USE flags, which enable you to enable/disable entire program features at build time and the ability to put software into a local overlay in which you can modify the source code and quickly have the changes reflected in your system. Programs do load faster and use less memory as a consequence of having smaller binaries (e.g. my Gentoo Linux laptop boots in 15 seconds from pressing the power button and uses 1/3 the memory than a stock Ubuntu Linux installation uses immediately post login), but I think that the biggest advantage of Gentoo Linux is that it enables you to modify other people's software relatively quickly.

Last summer, I found and corrected some bugs in a game called Battle for Wesnoth. I submitted a patch with the corrections to the developers and it was accepted into the 1.9.x tree the next day. My tendency to do mental verifications of the calculations that I think video games are doing caused me to notice that the numbers were off by 1. After I realized that, I had Gentoo unpack the source and I went through it. It only took 30 minutes to find and make the corrections. Had Gentoo not made it easy for me to examine the source code, I likely would never have bothered and the bugs I discovered would likely still be present in Battle for Wesnoth.

Gero50 January 27th, 2011 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shining Arcanine (Post 6403416)
I stopped using Windows a year ago and switched to Gentoo Linux. Since then, I have also tried other operating systems like FreeBSD in virtual machines, but my main OS has been Gentoo Linux.

Are there any other Gentoo Linux users here? What about Linux users in general? Expanding a bit further, are there any UNIX users here? Also, if anyone was unaware, Mac OS X is a UNIX OS.

I have used it on several occasions but, I am in no way a regular user of Gentoo. I do find it interesting though.

groteske February 3rd, 2011 1:53 AM

I'm a huge Gentoo fan, or at least I was before my laptop's eight key flipped off into oblivion. Rather difficult to set up networking without it.

Right now I'm just dualbooting Windows 7 and Fedora 14. Incidentally, noting your signature, I'd freshly switched from Sabayon about a week ago after two months' use (which is quite the long while for me). Now I'm reminded daily of why I left RPM-based distros in the first place so Fedora's only staying until I find a decent alternative. I adore Slackware but wanted a change.

Last BSD I attempted was FreeBSD probably.. four years ago? Failed miserably, or maybe I'm thinking of Solaris. Maybe I'll replace Fedora with BSD. Got any recommendations on that front?

IIMarckus February 18th, 2011 9:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shining Arcanine (Post 6408219)
In my opinion, the biggest reason to use Gentoo Linux is its ability to be easily customized. The entire distribution is designed around that premise and unfortunately, the fact that you can customize it to be very quick has given people the impression that Gentoo Linux is only useful if you want a fast system. Some of the key features of Gentoo Linux are its USE flags, which enable you to enable/disable entire program features at build time

Is this really a good thing? Disabling features creates a non‐reproducible environment, making things harder to debug. The space “saved” by reduced binary size is in contrast to the increased space and download time that source code takes, not to mention compile times.
Quote:

Originally Posted by groteske (Post 6433896)
Last BSD I attempted was FreeBSD probably.. four years ago? Failed miserably, or maybe I'm thinking of Solaris. Maybe I'll replace Fedora with BSD. Got any recommendations on that front?

I’ve used OpenBSD for the last three years. It suffers from two things: a lack of hardware support (particularly graphics cards; FreeBSD is better in this regard), and a lack of programs. There are a few thousand programs in the ports tree (which Portage was based on, I think). But programs not in the ports tree are a crapshoot; a lot of stuff written for Linux isn’t very portable and hence won’t compile on OpenBSD.

That said, it has all the programs I use (browser, IRC, editor, mail client, video player, a couple emulators) and is possibly the most Unix‐like Unix derivative still around. I think it’s great.


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 5:24 PM.


Like our Facebook Page Follow us on Twitter © 2002 - 2018 The PokéCommunity™, pokecommunity.com.
Pokémon characters and images belong to The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo. This website is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, The Pokémon Company or The Pokémon Company International. We just love Pokémon.
All forum styles, their images (unless noted otherwise) and site designs are © 2002 - 2016 The PokéCommunity / PokéCommunity.com.
PokéCommunity™ is a trademark of The PokéCommunity. All rights reserved. Sponsor advertisements do not imply our endorsement of that product or service. User generated content remains the property of its creator.

Acknowledgements
Use of PokéCommunity Assets
vB Optimise by DragonByte Technologies Ltd © 2023.