I used Gentoo for ages… it was the only distro I’d consider for my personal projects. Eventually, the amount of time it took to compile packages wore me out and I switched to fedora. Maybe I’m just old but watching gcc fly by for hours on end to compile X11 was neat but is not how I want to spend my Saturday anymore. Maybe I’ll build out a VM for old times sake…
USE flags are addictive.
they are :)
It sounds like a cool distro but I don’t see any advantages compared to NixOS, aside from maybe the option to make it more minimal for constrained environments.
it’s a lot less scuffed in some ways while still giving you a lot of control and a lot of tools for declarative system management. it’s also waaay better documented. it’s comfy.
Gentoo is great. I used it for a few years 20 years ago and I still think the package manager is the best I’ve ever used. I wouldn’t use Gentoo today, but I’m really glad I went through the install and maintenance process. It didn’t make me a guru, but I did learn a thing or two about Linux.
I have a soft spot for Gentoo, even though I haven’t used it in years. It was one of my first experiences with Linux, since it was installed in one of the computer labs in college. I just remember that the windows had this physics jiggle effect when you dragged them around. I was so surprised that Linux had a more “fun” aesthetic than Mac or Windows did.
Me too!
I used Gentoo almost exlusively from like 2003 to maybe 2012 or 2013. I switched to Arch about then. But quite recently I made the switch back to Gentoo on my primary box and I’m happy I did.
Only thing I still need to do to really make it long-term sustainable for my particular use is to set up a build server on my network. My “primary box” is in the room where I sleep and I need it dark and quiet when I’m sleeping. Can’t have MOBO color-shifting LEDs and fan sounds overnight. And I can’t compile something like Chromium in less than the 15-to-16-ish hours I’m awake in a given day. (And I’d prefer to compile it myself rather than using a binary package.) Hence the need for a build server.
Interested in why you went back to Gentoo after Arch.
I use Arch (btw) and tried Gentoo back in the day, but it’s always in the back of my mind that compiling source could be “better”…?
gentoo is less about compiling from source (I mean it can be about that too) and more about having a lot of choice and really nice tooling. it’s in some ways a bunch more stable and declarative than arch. packaging your own stuff is even easier and you can just have most packages be stable while only running unstable version of the packages you explicitly care about :)
This looks like a lolly of some kind, I want to eat it
It looks like a guitar pick to me. 🙃
Damn, it looked like candy to me too until I read your comment. Now all I see is candy guitar pick.
I tried to make this logo from scratch in Blender for a wallpaper and kinda couldn’t get the shape right because the angle of the actual logo is a bit weird.
https://www.pling.com/p/1788876
Good to know that I can use this official model.
:D
Yummy
What flavor is it?
you can have it any flavour you want :)
Mmm blueberry
purple
Y
it’s fun
Don’t you have to build everything from source in gentoo?
Nowadays it also has binary packages.
What the point of using Gentoo with Binary packages?
you still get huge amounts of choice and really good tooling
That’s for you to decide.
That would make a huge difference.
I ran Gentoo back in the early aughts; it was hella better than Redhat, but it felt like I was constantly compiling stuff, and new installs and upgrades could sometimes take more than a day. I don’t remember what I jumped to after Gentoo, but I’ve never considered it again because of the lack of prehbuilt binaries. It seemed bitcoinish to have thousands of people wasting CPU cycles compiling the same package when it could be compiled once and redistributed.
Where Gentoo is nice is in the build flags: there’s really no way to get around compiling yourself if you want to exclude optional dependencies, and Gentoo had that in spades. I am just not sure how much that’s actually used anymore, but having binaries gives you the best of both worlds.
Thanks for posting that; I may have to re-investigate Gentoo.
tbh, with modern CPUs it can be a lot easier. especially if you’re a bit picky about your packages and get a binary package for your browser.
new installs and upgrades could sometimes take more than a day
Laughs in Windows…
but having binaries
For big packages like browsers and office suites, not all packages.
Still a win if you’re so inclined. I prefer to compile 100%.
Mkay
