aww cut him some slack

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Err... does the NSA know you are doing that?

Heh-heh.

Well I guess we could slack off a bit.

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I really hate to say anything remotely negative about Gentoo (kudos for eudev, guys) but it seems that after all these years it's main value is to tweakers (thank the spaghetti monster for that!) who enjoy actual and solid alternatives between BSD and Linux. Too many distros these days are "also rans", mere variations on a theme. That said, originally Gentoo's raison d'etre was built on a myth that compiling everything from source would tailor everything to that machine resulting in "lean, mean, and oh so fast". That didn't turn out to be true. There simply is no big gain from compiling say KDE from source, unless you enjoy delusion (Dude! I'm like totally going so fast right now!). That applies to most other base systems as well.

I have no problem with the time it takes to install and setup Gentoo, or installing anything from source. In principle it would seem The Six P's Law should apply here. I do recall back in the day when 28.8 modems were the rule, downloading distro isos that took days just to get them on a local drive, and still, we did it. However 3-4 days of downloading paid off in a new system. 1-2 days downloading, installing and setting up Gentoo results in a more than merely decent distro and the company of a high percentage of solid coders on a system that embraces both old and new in a distinct and flexible manner.

I don't see that much difference ultimately from Slackware other than the very first post of "package management heaven" and frankly I find that to not be a net gain. I'm completely satisfied with the reliable, low maintenance, rock solid system I get from Slackware. IMHO, nothing else quite measures up.

While I'm at it I should mention that this is one of the very best examples of good necrothread and extend my sincere congratulations to SICKBOY for landing a great job as a result of his drive and efforts. Salut!

Gentoo is wonderful, I use in on my desktop, but as and when it comes to change time, I'm migrating back to Slack, which I use on everything else.

The juice just isn't worth the squeeze; specifically when you run into problems with Portage, it can be a difficult task to learn how to fix it. Updating on a frequent basis helps (don't let it go more than a month) helps but occasionally you'll get a large number of blocks from some package change, and it's a headache to sort out.

Compilation isn't a great issue when you've got an I7 or similar, but you'll still find it awkward when you want that application now and it involves some honking great rebuild that will have you waiting a while.

I've tried Gentoo and Funtoo both, but I hate the tediousness of the use flags, masking, and unmasking of packages just to get one package to build. Even with the defaults I've had packages in a build order completely fail. It gets so aggravating to try and weed through endless output just to track a package failure due to a stray use flag and a package needing to be masked or unmasked from the pool. FreeBSD at least asks you at intervals what options you'd like for packages with the curses menus. Gentoo and Funtoo do not. I think CRUX might, but I haven't used it in a while to remember.

By using a portage profile you'll rarely have any need to fiddle with individual use flags for specific packages.
Also, unmasking is generally not recommended as it may lead to system breakage.
Anyhow, using a desktop profile combined with sensible system wide defaults like: USE="-gnome -pulseaudio -systemd" and you'll have the perfect system for any slacker

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My experience with Gentoo was similar to ReaperX7. Portage was more of a hindrance than help.

User1: Gentoo is wonderful ....
User2: I've tried Gentoo and Funtoo both, but I hate the tediousness of the use flag.....
:-)
that just shows again that taste is different and tools innocent, well, sometimes, often , mostly ..
and as it is with taste, some things you have to eat 8 times until you know the taste (or get used to it) and can form an opinion upon the thing's taste.

Gentoo is one of my favorites because it provides options and more options and even more options for just about everything in your OS, that is if you have the patience for it.
But I will use trusted Slackware for no-nonsense serious work.

When it comes to source-based distributions my favourite is still CRUX. The simplicity is what I like about it.

Many years ago Arch was the same, but then it became more and more complex and when they introduced systemd I completely lost interest in Arch. CRUX is still like Arch was in the beginnig - in fact, CRUX is older than Arch and the Arch creator was inspired by CRUX.

Hi,
Too bad! The new slackware64 14.2 is great and very satisfying to Slackers. Most pastures are not that much greener than older thick and well maintained pastures. Take that from a retired horse breeder that knows his hay & pastures.

Slackware's package management tools will not get you into trouble unless you really do something stupid.

Have fun & enjoy!

if my calculation is correct than this thread will become 14 years and 2 days old tomorrow .. ;-)

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Hi,

Your right! I think this could be considered a record for thread to be continuously resurrected.

No longer a necro thread but a Zombie! Just lingers on and on that is drifting hither and there. I should have looked at the OP dates. My bad for responding!