Hi!

Just write down which one you like more, wich one you think is better. Just the name: Arch or Gentoo

Uh, Both? I use Gentoo on boxen which can compile software in a timely fashion, and Arch on boxen which cannot.

Has someone here EVER tried to issue the command

as root...?

Man... it IS an adventure...

I guess you need a Cray-T3 to have it ready in less than one hour... optimistic estimates go for one day of compiling...

IF... the thingie does not stop in the mean time because of some rather insignificant detail in the Makefiles...

... I have the experience of broken ports in OpenBSD...

All this is nice IF you have the time to tinker along with it...

I'd vote for Arch...

Mmm... neither?

You can't really compare them, they are two different distros aimed at two different groups of people.

I'm about to get an i7 laptop into gear. Maybe I could emerge KDE - but why ?.
Been a while since I looked at gentoo - I need to compile a lot of test kernels, and Arch does me just fine. Just downloaded the _64 CD in fact; have an install to do.

My old clunky AMD 2500+ (Barton) took about 6 hours to compile kde-base... which is all you need to "start" using kde (yeah you can likely do it on a package by package basis and decrease that time even more but I couldn't be bothered )

However I quickly removed it as it kept causing crashes and stuff.

I've never used arch so my vote would be for Gentoo, the community and the documentation rocks!.

Its Apples and Oranges in a way....
Their not really comparable are they?

I think Gentoo would be comparable to SourceMage, Lunar, Sorcery, or even LFS

Arch is like...Arch I guess

or what?

Arch really lacks focus on security and overall reliability.

Here's what Allan McRae, one of the main Arch developers, is saying about Arch:
http://mailman.archlinux.org/piperma...ry/012483.html

http://igurublog.wordpress.com/2011/...-notso-secret/

I guess Arch is more along the lines of Slackware and Crux linux...I would choose Arch over Gentoo and if I did do source, it would be SourceMage!

Can you really compare the two? Gentoo if you want to compile your software, Arch if you don't.

Yes it is an adventure especially with no package.use...

I use both, arch is the one I install everything on, gentoo only stuff I really like/can't get on arch

Arch!

As far as I know - they are both bretty much the same. The biggest difference - in Gentoo you need to compile everything while Arch has binary packages in repos and installation goes very fast. I also heard that Arch has better /etc/rc.conf. Plus Arch is more bleeding edge which mean less stability and newer software. Arch is my choice.

I've used both for quite a while. There is no "better" only that which is right for you. I prefer Gentoo now for maximum control but Arch has some convenience and has the same level of control potentially (ABS - you can compile everything yourself should you prefer) and as commonly used a level of control which is very near Gentoo.

Compiling isn't that bad (perhaps with the exception of the initial setup). Remember that with the proper settings you can easily compile programs in the background while still working. I browse through Firefox while updating Gentoo all the time and usually don't notice any lag and I'm on a P4 Prescott system with 2 GB Ram.

I'm not sure how fair it is to share this without putting it in context within the message like this. Besides most developers keep that sort of attitude in that they attempt to under-promise when it comes to security. If a developer said "Yes, our distribution is the most secure ever and users can stake their lives on this fact." then they could be ethically and perhaps legally responsible when tragic things occur which prove the claim to be false.

Besides 90% of the responsibility for security or lack thereof when running a distro lies between the chair and the keyboard. This is even more true when it comes to a distro such as Arch Linux or Gentoo because you tend to be more in control.

I'd choose Gentoo over Arch for one simple reason. Arch lacks package signing. Even if Arch were better than Gentoo in every other aspect, that one fact would keep me away from it.