Is Gentoo something to have?
 

NOTE: Sorry if you find this thread on any other section, i think this section is the right place to ask!

Hi, im currently testing Windows Vista and it really sucks ass, memory leak and other shit. Well im going to use Linux on my two workstations again (and also on my laptop wich i will buy week28).

I was planning to use Gentoo on my main workstation and Debian Sarge on my 2nd computer as server.

Main workstation: Athlon64 3000+ , 1GB RAM, 80GB, GeForce6800GT 256MB PCIexpress
2nd Computer(server): Sempron64 2800+, 256MB RAM, 120GB, GeForce3 Ti200 64MB AGP

I was thinking of installing as less networking apps as possible on the main workstation and keep these on the server like IM chat and IRC (CenterICQ and irssi). And then SSH into the server from the workstation and chat to my friends that way
What do you think?

But i will keep other important software (for me) on the main like: FTP client (must be fxp-able), Open Office, Wine, GIMP, DVD burning application and multimedia apps for MP3s and movies.

Also, can u recommend me a good BitTorrent client for gentoo?

Thx for taking your time reading this!

/Fredd

Have you used Linux before? Gentoo is quite challenging and needs a lot of hands on work for installation, configuration and maintenance compared to most Linux distros. Since Gentoo is highly customisable, you can install as much or as little as you want. As for bittorent clients, Azureus and ktorrent work really well for me.

I disagree a little bit. The new Gentoo LiveCD is just as easy to install as others. You even get to use the graphical interface with "point-and-click" installation. I won't disagree that is takes a lot work for configuration and maintenance though. But if you want full control over your system, Gentoo is the way to go.

~Justin

WHAT!? They have a graphical install now?? Wow, I've been missing out ;). I agree with the above poster, however. Even if they have a graphical install now, Gentoo requires knowledge to maintain. I suggest an "easier" distro to begin with.

Last time i used Linux was back in 2005 @ the summer for 4 weeks. I used Mandriva at that time to learn linux a bit. ANd i've been testing several distros but none of these fits my needs. And gentoos package system (source code) is alot more interesting. As for the server part i think Debian Sarge is the right choice, i have access to 2 linux shells across the net with Debian Sarge and it works really good, i like apt-get.
Im not this ULTRA-n00b. I do understand linux a bit, but the only thing i always had trouble with is Sound driver install and GeForce driver install. Can u guys help me with that?

You'll need to give us more details about your sound and graphics driver problems. With regards to graphics though, if you're not going to play games or do anything heavily graphics intensive, then you can of course just not install the Nvidia drivers and use whatever the default in X.org is (as long as it works ok). It's obviously up to you though.

One thing about Gentoo: Installing stuff takes a while (Gotta compile all that stuff from source)

If you do decide to do it, I wish you good luck!

You can also use binary packages in Gentoo.

If you caught me 5 minutes ago I would have scream rtorrent as a client suggestion but I just had it crap out on me with (what I would call) a pretty major bug and checking their bugtracker the author knows about it but hasn't fixed it :(

/me heads off to find another CLI (preferably ncurses-based) Bittorrent app...

EDIT: Scratch that, spastic permissions error :p

...but why would you? Well, time can be tight...But binaries are so.......inflexible.

You've sort of answered yourself. If I need to install a package asap and it takes a long time to compile from source, I install a binary and then build the package from source later. I mainly do this with OOo because it takes forever to compile.

Haven't tried it yet, but i hear it's real good for advanced linux users. I've used freebsd and that was great.

you kids have it easy these days
 

Back when I installed Gentoo (two years ago), they didn't have a text based installer. I had to use the command line.

Brian

I think it's the same now except for the live CD that doesn't work all the time from what I hear.
FreeBSD is the shit, it's so awesome I wish I had time to learn the diffs so I could use it full time but work is too much atm. Hopefully one day :D