Gentoo vs. Redhat
 

I've been hearing a lot of great things about Gentoo but I'm only familar with RedHat. How is Gentoo as a server? And as a desktop? I use Windows 2000 as my workstation but Redhat as my server. Is there any particular reason to give Gentoo a try? What are some of their key differences?

Gentoo is optimized for your hardware from the get-go. Gentoo take a MUCH longer time to install/upgrade, however it's constantly optimized for your system. Gentoo is a "sources based distro" which means that it's a little more flexible/versatile, where RH is RPM based which makes it a little more easy-to-use/n00b friendly.

Gentoo is slightly less known, however there are over 4000 ebuilds (the gentoo equivilent of an RPM) so that really isn't a problem, also Gentoo is gaining popularity hand-over-fist so that's not an good point really :)

RH has paid tech support, has done the server thing to death, knows QUITE A BIT about doing it, and I personally think is much more geared to a large corp. Gentoo has the same abilities (as does any distro really) as RH when it comes to the core of the OS, however RH has it's "tools" that it's created to assist when creating a server environment.

To each their own. Do you need versatility? Do you need well-known/documented use? Do you need paid-tech support to assist with your every whim? Do you need RPM (gentoo can do RPM but there's really no point)? Do you need hardware optimization from the beginning?

:)

I use Gentoo and love every minute of it, however I also use Slackware, so Gentoo is quite a bit easier than what I'm used to ;) Moving from RH to Gentoo might take some "getting used to" but might be worth it, especially if hardware optimization is a must for you. If you are small business/home user, then I personally think Gentoo might be worth a look-see. If you are a corp, millions of users, thousands of dollars for support, then RH would definitely be the way to go.

In the end...
It's up to you really!

Cool

Gentoo has great documentation and you will increase your knowledge of Linux 3 fold.

Portage is the best package manager I have found.

Emerge links early after system so you can learn to browse with a console text browser while building x and your wm/de.

Is Portage better/comparable to apt? I haven't tried Gentoo, mainly because I don't have broadband and the thought of waiting years to install a system is just a bit much. ;>

Flibble

Portage is similar to BSD Ports, if you are familiar with that.

Its like apt-get, but it generally uses source instead of packages. It does check dependancies though, so you get the same effect in the end.

apt-get will resolve dependencies, fetch and install pre-compiled binaries.

portage will resolve dependencies, fetch, compile for your machine and install from source code.

You can reduce/eliminate the need for a high speed connection by getting some Cheap Gentoo CDs. The GRP CDs are pre-compiled installs, I think.

I installed mine over a 56k dialup and took the time to learn as I compiled. If I remember correctly, it was less than a week for me from box to working GUI. Of course, I was using it to browse the net as soon as I got links emerged.

I'd like to get started with Gentoo as well, are there any guides out there?

Gentoo is great for anything and its also source base and you have to
install all packages by hand more or less
i have barely touched a red hat machine but i i dont like the thing with
red hat and mandrake that the computer should do every thing

so in the end Use GENTOO

cheers

erling