Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on May 16, 2006 01:03 AM
I think problems occur when people approach Gentoo as they would any other distro. The whole point of Gentoo is to provide a distro for people who love elbow grease and love tweaking (but don't want LFS<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:).
I don't think I would even call Gentoo a distribution (I don't mean this in a bad way, but just to make it clear to those new to linux). A distribution provides a convenient means of installing software by giving the user pre-compiled, pre-tested, platform-specific, binary `packages'. Gentoo is a little different -- it provides the user with a (relatively) easy means to obtain the source code of a `package', patch it (to fix security holes and make it play nice with the other packages), compile it (with as much optimization as you want), and install it.
The testing/patching of gentoo does not occur in a lab somewhere, it occurs with the user -- when the user finds a package unable to compile, he forwards it to the Gentoo community (probably in addition to the package maintainers), who in turn figure out what's wrong and create fixes for it. When enough people seem to be using all the patches without too many problems, a `stable' release is announced. This has much more of the community-oriented spirit that is essential to open source software.
The advantages are many: the user has a feeling of accomplishment (even if s/he may do nothing more than compile a set of sources/patches prepared by someone else), the user may develop an understanding of how different parts/pieces of an operating system work together (then again, s/he may not), the user is able to customize to his/her heart's content, the extra customization aids the developers in finding configuration-specific bugs (for example: normally, a software writer makes sure his/her software compiles on as many machines/configurations as s/he can. Additionally, it must compile on the various machines/configurations of the popular distributions (which are usually lowest-common-denominator configurations) such as Debian, Fedora Core, etc. The Gentoo philosophy increases probability of a user with an unanticipated configuration finding a bug during compilation.).
Gentoo is for people who like the philosophy mentioned above. People who want something educational/customizable like Linux From Scratch, but also want it to be production-quality (without making great efforts). Gentoo is not for people hopping from one distribution to another. It should not be compared to normal distributions. Over all, it is about the user having fun -- the way open source was meant to be.
Now I have to get back to writing that essay due tomorrow.
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Re:Gentoo is a Source based Distro!!
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on May 16, 2006 01:03 AMI don't think I would even call Gentoo a distribution (I don't mean this in a bad way, but just to make it clear to those new to linux). A distribution provides a convenient means of installing software by giving the user pre-compiled, pre-tested, platform-specific, binary `packages'. Gentoo is a little different -- it provides the user with a (relatively) easy means to obtain the source code of a `package', patch it (to fix security holes and make it play nice with the other packages), compile it (with as much optimization as you want), and install it.
The testing/patching of gentoo does not occur in a lab somewhere, it occurs with the user -- when the user finds a package unable to compile, he forwards it to the Gentoo community (probably in addition to the package maintainers), who in turn figure out what's wrong and create fixes for it. When enough people seem to be using all the patches without too many problems, a `stable' release is announced. This has much more of the community-oriented spirit that is essential to open source software.
The advantages are many: the user has a feeling of accomplishment (even if s/he may do nothing more than compile a set of sources/patches prepared by someone else), the user may develop an understanding of how different parts/pieces of an operating system work together (then again, s/he may not), the user is able to customize to his/her heart's content, the extra customization aids the developers in finding configuration-specific bugs (for example: normally, a software writer makes sure his/her software compiles on as many machines/configurations as s/he can. Additionally, it must compile on the various machines/configurations of the popular distributions (which are usually lowest-common-denominator configurations) such as Debian, Fedora Core, etc. The Gentoo philosophy increases probability of a user with an unanticipated configuration finding a bug during compilation.).
Gentoo is for people who like the philosophy mentioned above. People who want something educational/customizable like Linux From Scratch, but also want it to be production-quality (without making great efforts). Gentoo is not for people hopping from one distribution to another. It should not be compared to normal distributions. Over all, it is about the user having fun -- the way open source was meant to be.
Now I have to get back to writing that essay due tomorrow.
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