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For Gentoo there are only these words:
Debian rulez but Gentoo rockz :)
The only new to last release is a full funtionally installer that really works:)
What my opinion is about itīs gone too easy.
Gentto ever was a Distro for people really interessted in Linux Systems.
Today with this installer itīs to easy to use and that could be dangerous.Every guy who starts Linux can set it up without great probs(he will get them later)
User friendlyness as an Argument?? Don`t think so .It will be more and more an Selling Argument .
Whatīs the next an Anaaconda installer like VLos ? or a YAST Clone? :)
Gentoo is cool but it goes more and more the commercial line. (A friend told me ,if it holds this way there is only one way out: Change to BSD and take a real Unix :))
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10
Pros:
Excellent documentation, Total Configurability, Extremely Stable
Cons:
Patience needed
Gentoo can be highly optimized and customized. The user and developer community are very involved and helpful. Good if you want to learn and you are /want to be involved with linux social and technical principles.
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10
Pros:
Excellent community, portage is the best package manager, no dependency hell, compiles everything from source
Cons:
compile times
That's really all there is to it: Gentoo Linux is Linux from Scratch with a package management system.
It DEMANDS that the user puts time in to learn stuff about their computer, and do almost everything by themselves. It is gentoo's greatest strength. You can have a system compiled, tailored to your needs to do whatever you want, however you want it to.
Gentoo doesn't protect you from your computer - it opens it up to you.
The gentoo motto is: If it moves, compile it. I like this motto. ;)
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10
Pros:
Package manager, colors in package manager, source, USE flags
Cons:
No reverse dependency checking
I run this on a mythtv server and my personal desktop/workstation. I also run it on a mythtv multimedia frontend for watching, and it took me literally 1 day to get it working. Go Gentoo!
Only thing Gentoo really needs is reverse dependency checks when unmerging programs, but it is fairly smart so that if you do mess something up, it will fix itself.
I really like how they color everything and everything related to the package manager( I can't stand debian's no-color apt ).
USE flags are a brilliant idea, and it is better now that you can set them on a package-by-package basis with /etc/portage/package.use.
I would recommend this to anyone who has some time and really wants to learn about linux/package management.
The old Slackware motto was, "If you want to learn a distro, get that distro, if you want to learn linux, get Slackware." I think that has changed ;-)
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10
Pros:
Configurability, Stability
Cons:
requires patience
Gentoo is my favorite Linux distro. It's certainly easier to use now than ever, but it still has so much to offer in terms of config potential, speed, and stability. It's a great distro...
But I have to agree, *BSD is untouchable. I use FreeBSD and OpenBSD, and I have been playing with FreeBSD lately as my desktop. Gentoo holds a special place with me, and likely always will...but man, FreeBSD is seriously cool.
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10
Pros:
Configurability, Stability, Number of Packages Avaliable, Bleeding Edge Technologies, Documentation, User Friendly Forums & Community
Cons:
Fast Moving Distribution, May be hard to mantain
Gentoo is a great distribution for anybody who wants to learn (really learn) Linux (and about the Open Source world too). Its a great framework to work with, gives you the latest and greatest tools and has safe defaults for most apps. Its great for servers not so great for desktop users with not much time to spare (who don't really want to maintain up-to-date their packages).
Has tons of features, its a great platform to learn and develop.
Downside is that it moves really fast, sometimes old packages get deprecated and removed from portage or become blockers and give you a few headaches. Not so good if you have legacy apps or if you need to support old systems.
Really good for pretty much anything else. Great and extensive documentation and a friendly (as in friendly to noobs) community willing to help.
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10
Pros:
great community, _very_ fast
Cons:
install takes a while (emerge xorg-x11 xfce ...zzzz)
I really like the idea of gentoo. In a practical sense it takes a while to emerge & compile everything when doing 1st install, once its up and configured though is really fast.
_don't go for the gui installer_ use a tarball and build from CLI (IMHO)
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10
Pros:
Very very fast and optimised.
Cons:
Slow install due to compiling, which is made up for with the run speed XD
Well seeming gentoo is the only distro to last more than a few months on my PC (currently at 7 months I beleive) and is running on a 633mhz pentium 3 just fine, I would have to say it wins my vote by far.
Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 1
Pros:
difficult installer
Cons:
I ran the Gentoo as a live DVD no problem. But I have to tell you I think this is the worst excuse for an installer I have ever seen. I have installed just about every flavor of Linux plus FreeBSD, and Solaris. They all were a piece of cake compared to Gentoo. This installer is junk as far as I am concerned. Just a rant I suppose but I am very dissapointed in this product.
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 9
Pros:
Portage, The guides, the Wiki, The Forum.
Cons:
Lack of some ebuilds.(recently)
Download once. Update weekly, Machine doesn't get chance to get behind.
Popularity is artificially low because people don't download iso all the time. Slower Momentum means a little under staffed, Which means some ebuilds are behind. A few more developers on staff would be good.
Portage is actually very,very good. Could be used for a binary distro as easy as source distro.
Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 1
Pros:
Portage
Cons:
The quality has gone very much downhill recently..
The installer is pure trash. Does not work at all on some systems. Used to be a slow and very manual install but then things worked beautifully. Now it is still slow and very manual, but VERY few things work properly without a hell of a lot of work. I am EXTREMELY disappointed in it now.
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