Gentoo Linux - How Many Users Out There ? gentoo linux distro

How many gentoo users do we have out here?Recently started delving into it, and i am extatic. It has the command line cabalities of apt-get (debians source grabber) using emerege. Love how it automatically downloads and installs the sources from a source tree. Makes things alot easier.

Edited August 18, 2005 by microscopic^earthling (see edit history)

Makes things alot easier.

Easier? Easier than what? I'm afraid to use gentoo. If there is one thing I still don't have the balls to use ... it's gentoo.... inspite of using linux for over a year now. With the download speed I've got, it'll take 2 whole days just to download and install KDE!!! And, if anything happens (God forbid!) to the installation and you have to reinstall, you've wasted 2 days of your life!!! . Sorry, I'm gonna stick with ready to install and go type distros like slackware. . If I want to do a reinstall, all I;ve got to do is pop the CD in and in a 45 min or so, I'm good to go.

I'm afraid to use gentoo.

abhiram, you sound like some one is stiking a gun at you...chill out..dont use gentoo. Its not the end of the world . Use some other distribution. Gentoo is not meant for normal Linux use. It will make you learn more about your computer and operating system than what average user should know. Try other distros like OpenSuSe and Ubuntu.Also what you could do is install gentoo from inside another linux . that way your precious 2 days of life wont be wasted . Go through settings and when its time to connect to internet just fetch all sources ..ie emerge -f system or emerge -f mozilla-firefox (ofcourse after setting the USE flags so you download only the stuff you need). Then you can install it later.
Anoter way is to download Gentoo Packages CD. IMO gentoo is the best OS right now for an uber geek like me. For normal user ..any major linux distro (aslso see http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ should suffice)

How many gentoo users do we have out here?

helric, i am a gentoo user for last 2 years. and Linxu suer for almost 41/2 years. I have come to know linux more ..just because of gentoo. Recently I helped one of my friends installing gentoo on his system. He was skeptical first and was very jittery the entire time the system was being compiled (i used -O2 flags and not -O3 , otherwise it would have taken alot more time and he would have chicked out.)
Just today he was boasting about his new fast system on lunch table (ofcouarse mentioning my help and thanking me .

that way your precious 2 days of life wont be wasted

Sorry man, ... just the thought of having to let your computer just sit there for 2 whole days and not touch it at all.... no songs, games or net.

Also what you could do is install gentoo from inside another linux . that way your precious 2 days of life wont be wasted

How do you do that? I might try it out if it doesn't take so long to install.

I don't use Gentoo because it takes too long to compile on my machine.System specs (simplified)Intel Pentium 4 2533 MHZ512 MB DDR SDRAM120 GB HDD 7200 RPM 8MB Cache80GB HDD 7200 RPM 8MB Cachexboxrulz

Not that that sounds like a slow machine or anything...But no, I am not, and will never be a gentoo user.If I wanted to use linux, I would use it, but I don't like linux.I'm an OpenBSD user. One of the few and the proud..or does anyone use OpenBSD out here?

im a gentoo user !!!!!Gentoo is pretty much the opposite to OpenBSD in manyways.Okay Okay there both Unix like, and both make excellent servers, But Gentoo is Bleeding edge, very up to date, patched, and secure.Can be an excelent server or desktop machine.OpenBSD usually runs quite old versions of software,only uses code that has been checked checked, and re-checked at the code levels for mistakes, bugs and holes. And is 100% aimed for use as a server.I dont need that level of securety, and i use my machine as a desktop more than a server, so if anything i would go for FreeBSD or DesktopBSD.

How do you do that? I might try it out if it doesn't take so long to install.

Well what you could do is simply boot in your linux .. and dowload the stage you want to download. If you want a fully customized system then you download Stage 1 ..but it takes alot more time. Download Stage 2 or Stage 3 to get things up and running in lesser time . You can always recompile every thing once your working desktop (for me it would be Working X and Mozilla + mplayer) installed.

Then after you download the stage use the guide to compile it. Once you chroot into tyhe stage you will be inside the gentoo system ..its all in the Gentoo HandBook. It would take some time . May be a day or 2 to compile alot of stuff. If you have a slow internet connection i would recomend not to do so. Other wise you can always sacrifice a day or two for this experimentation. Believe me when i say it ...if you get this installed...you will never use any thing else ..for a very long time ()âŹmay be when u get really old and think that computer is very fast for you ..ull switch back to Windows ..)

PM me if you have any more questions

Well, since you rate it so high, I'd like to check it out... but right now, my univ's net connection is at an all time low. So it might be a while before I try to install gentoo. Anyway, thanks for the info. For the time being, I'll have to continue with slackware.

if u want 100% customizability, go for Linux From Scratchxboxrulz

I would consider Gentoo to be Linux (From Scratch + Package Management)

There's nothing you can do in LFS that you cannoy in Gentoo.
Plus, installing the base of LFS includes hours of typing out word for word endless cycles of..

tar -zxf someAppcd someApp./configure --prefix=/usrmakemake checkmake install

over and over and over.

when in gentoo, you get all the customisbility, but you can skip the hours / days of build time with a simple

emerge system world

I would treat Linux from scratch as a learning experiance more than an every day use desktop distro.

I built a few Linux from scratch systems. And now i have a much greater understanding of how GNU and Linux work, but im still a gentoo fan

ok... so, let's say I want to install gentoo right now. I've got a windows xp and a slackware 10.1 installation already. Computer configuration is as follows:1. Linux partition : 7GB EXT3 2. Windows : 128GB in NTFS and 15GB in FAT32. I want to install gentoo on a trial basis only. I don't want to lose either of my installations because they are heavily customised and working as fine and as fast as I could tune them to. Is there any way to try gentoo out as a regular install? I know going for a virtual machine is one option, but for some reason I dislike using virtual machines. Will it be possible to install gentoo and again change everything back to the way it was without any harm?Thanks.

cant you just 'steal' a bit of space from one of your partitions and in stall in there. my friends gentoo is only about 3 gig and that includes all software needed for a family pc.also note about gentoo - my friends installed gentoo as a dual boot on his family pc. it a p3 family spec blah blah blah... now he has a massive increase on the speed of everything and converted all but his younger brother who still plays games. both his parents are avid users all he has to to is upkeep it.

I want to install gentoo on a trial basis only. I don't want to lose either of my installations because they are heavily customised and working as fine and as fast as I could tune them to. Is there any way to try gentoo out as a regular install? I know going for a virtual machine is one option, but for some reason I dislike using virtual machines. Will it be possible to install gentoo and again change everything back to the way it was without any harm?

you could.... boot the gentoo instalation CD, and when you get to the par about configureing the disks, instead of formatting a parttion, simple crate a new folder in your slackware pastiton called "slacky" and move everything in the linux partiton into "slacky" then install gentoo as normal.

after you want slack back, boot gentoo install cd, then delete everything in the root linux partiton EXCEPT "slacky" then move the contents of "slacky" back to where it stared.

OR you could use parted to resize your 128GB NTFS partiton to make space for a new Gentoo partiton.

my friends installed gentoo as a dual boot on his family pc ... now he has a massive increase on the speed of everything

i know !!! its amasing isnt it !
When you know your system well, and set the optimisation to match your CPU, and set the USE flags up to vut out the bloat you dont want, the system just flys.

I was compiling a new kernel, AND compiling a load of KDE components (compiling 4 things at the same time) the CPU was at 100% in use, but the desktop, web browser, and everything remained perfectly responcive, the desktop was acting asif the CPU was just idle. totally took me by surprise.

Ive started shouting at other distro's and Windows fo beeing slow to react when somthings going on in the background, lol.

And dont even get me started on Emerge Portage.

All distro's should use portage !

crate a new folder in your slackware pastiton called "slacky" and move everything in the linux partiton into "slacky"

You mean move everything from / to '/slacky'. But what about the bootloader? Won't that get all messed up? How will I restore the bootloader if I want slack back the way it was. Sorry for being a pest, but I just want to know for sure before I proceed. I've spent days with this customisation.

you could use parted to resize your 128GB NTFS partiton to make space for a new Gentoo partiton

No, I can't do that. Too much data in those partitions. There are 3 partitions on the whole and each one has a ton of music, games and movies.