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Gentoo Schmentoo


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Tried it, hate it.

 

I really don't want to start a flame on this and I do understand why some people might like it. My opinion: if you don't have a really good reason to try it, then save yourself the pain.

 

Nobody told me how sucky the gentoo kernel sources were, so after trying to figure out for two days why so many things screwed up at boot, I eventually moved over to the vanilla sources, which (obviously) seem better.

 

My Zip drive won't work no matter what I do. SCSI support is enabled, etc. etc. but the dev just never shows up.

 

The standard NVIDIA driver packages, which work on every single other distro I have seen, are a nightmare to get working properly and I still have no GLX with no good reason (I felt like I was in a M$ product with this one, no logical explanation, just a stupid error).

 

I had BIG network card problems until I used the vanilla kernel.

 

The Installation instructions supply newbies with lines and lines of code that they happily bash in, without ever explaining what it does, so the instructions work, but don't expect to learn anything without the help of the LDP. The learning comes in when you try and fix Gentoo after installing it!

 

Portage sounds like a good idea until you spend 2 hours installing a _small_ piece of software... the reason? Speed, stream-lining, etc. - But Wait! I notice no difference in the speed between Mandrake and Gentoo.... so why waste so much time? Even with GRP, packages will still take longer to compile then they are worth.

 

People complain about the patched packages and sources that Mandrake supply, but Gentoo is just as patched. The difference? Mandrake's patches actually work!

 

I just wasted four days of my life on a distro that might be worth something one day (I think they still have LOTS of work to do on it), but does nothing for me now. So I might not know enough to fix it.... why should I have to fix it? When I muck around with Slackware, it is difficult, but there are good reasons for things not working, etc.

 

Give me Mandy, give me urpmi and the drakes. Gentoo blows.

 

SoulSe gives away his Gentoo CDs and hops along to order Debian...

 

Please remember: my knowledge is limited and I have just wasted four frustrating days of my life... so take this post from whence it comes, I'm just trying to save some other n00bs the pain that Gentoo caused me.

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I really don't want to start a flame on this...
Good luck in that endeavor, old friend :-) You said a lot of stuff that left open the door for flamewars. This post will be watched closely....by me if by no one else :)

 

Gentoo's not meant to be easy to install or easy to get up and running. It's intended for you to learn how to get it going. It took me a while to get my burner working in Gentoo, but there was a thread on their board that helped a good bit. NVIDIA drivers, well, I don't remember them, but if I don't remember then I probably didn't have any issues....so I'm not sure what was going on there for you.

 

Anywho, taking some of your complaints into consideration, I suggest Arch if you want to try something new (if you haven't tried it). I like it better than I liked Gentoo, and a lot of your complaints are covered.

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Hey, it's just my opinion. I now understand why Gentoo's user board has so many registered users - you can't get it working without 24 hour support :P

 

Maybe I should have been nicer... but if I save one n00b some pain, then it was worth it.

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I've been using Gentoo about 7 months and i love it. Sure installs take a longer than binary rpms/targz/debs/etc, but i'm a patient person, the feartures in portage (such as the USE variable) make it well worth it IMHO.

As for the Nvidia drivers, i guess you didn't read the install guide very well," emerge nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel", boom, done. Works great.(and it does point that out in the install guide)

Problem with gentoo-sources, i personally don't have a problem with them, but there are so many sources you could emerge......

And I find the install guide to be quite informative, and easy to follow.

I've recently converted a friend over to linux, and when he was first using mandy, he would drive me crazy cause he couldn't figure anything out. He had to hack so drivers, and scripts to get a few things working on his laptop, with newer hardware. and madrake didn't like the changes. He finally got frustrated and installed what i use, gentoo. Couldn't of been happier. "Gentoo is awsome, not like pain-in-the-ass-mandrake." is what he said.

But anyway, it's only a matter of opinion and experience. I know debian is a great distro, but I've had bad experiences with it, nothing ever worked. So I don't use it. That's what linux is about, choice.

As tyme said, this could turn into a flame war.

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Hey, it's just my opinion. I now understand why Gentoo's user board has so many registered users - you can't get it working without 24 hour support :P 

Maybe I should have been nicer... but if I save one n00b some pain, then it was worth it.

:lol: :lol:

SoulSe now runs and hides, waiting for the onslaught from dedicated Gentoo users. :lol:

:

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I'm gonna try to be nice here, cause quite honestly I'm frustrated. I jumped on over to the gentoo forums, and looked up your user. You have 2 posts, 1 asking wheither the cds are worth it, and the other basically complaining that things aren't working, not specifing what's wrong. Just saying "Why won't the Nvidia drivers, which work on every other distro I have used, work on Gentoo?

". People can't help if you don't supply details.

Here's his post.... http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=9...4062&highlight=

 

Also, that post was at "Mon Oct 06, 2003 3:48 am." I mean, wth? It's like people joining our IRC channel ( #musb ), asking a question, then leaving in 30 seconds because of no response. Come on!

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I've been using Gentoo about 7 months and i love it. Sure installs take a longer than binary rpms/targz/debs/etc, but i'm a patient person, the feartures in portage (such as the USE variable) make it well worth it IMHO.

As for the Nvidia drivers, i guess you didn't read the install guide very well," emerge nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel", boom, done. Works great.(and it does point that out in the install guide)

Problem with gentoo-sources, i personally don't have a problem with them, but there are so many sources you could emerge......

And I find the install guide to be quite informative, and easy to follow.

I've recently converted a friend over to linux, and when he was first using mandy, he would drive me crazy cause he couldn't figure anything out. He had to hack so drivers, and scripts to get a few things working on his laptop, with newer hardware. and madrake didn't like the changes.  He finally got frustrated and installed what i use, gentoo.  Couldn't of been happier. "Gentoo is awsome, not like pain-in-the-ass-mandrake." is what he said.

But anyway, it's only a matter of opinion and experience. I know debian is a great distro, but I've had bad experiences with it, nothing ever worked. So I don't use it. That's what linux is about, choice.

As tyme said, this could turn into a flame war.

The whole reason I used the Nvidia package was because gentoo's emerged nvidia drivers didn't work!

 

Mandrake makes Gentoo look like a childs-plaything (lets see what this one manages to provoke :wink:).

 

And I don't care if this turns into a flame war, so long as I am armed with my :P emoticon.... so.... so.... :P

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I'm gonna try to be nice here, cause quite honestly I'm frustrated. I jumped on over to the gentoo forums, and looked up your user. You have 2 posts, 1 asking wheither the cds are worth it, and the other basically complaining that things aren't working, not specifing what's wrong. Just saying "Why won't the Nvidia drivers, which work on every other distro I have used, work on Gentoo?

". People can't help if you don't supply details.

Here's his post.... http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=9...4062&highlight=

 

Also, that post was at "Mon Oct 06, 2003 3:48 am." I mean, wth? It's like people joining our IRC channel ( #musb ), asking a question, then leaving in 30 seconds because of no response. Come on!

I hope everyone goes and reads my post so that they can see that I am not being nasty and am asking for help, as you recommended.

 

Calm down.

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The whole reason I used the Nvidia package was because gentoo's emerged nvidia drivers didn't work!

Ok, try asking around why they weren't working? Just telling someone that they aren't working, doesn't help....

 

Mandrake makes Gentoo look like a childs-plaything (lets see what this one manages to provoke ).

I admit gentoo isn't for children.... But hell, i learned more about how linux works and what it does, and what it's capable of in 1 week of using gentoo than i did in 1.5 years of using mandrake. Plust a newb (such as my recent convert) can easily install gentoo if they just follow the install guides, and ASK for help...

And I don't care if this turns into a flame war, so long as I am armed with my  emoticon.... so.... so....

You posted something knowing, not caring, that it could turn into a flame war? How do you mods feel about that?

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Mandrake makes Gentoo look like a childs-plaything (lets see what this one manages to provoke  :wink:)
wait...let me get this right...the distro which is EASIER to use makes the distro which is HARDER to use look like a childs play-thing? :roll:

 

man, kids toys must have changed drastically since i was young... :huh:

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I hope everyone goes and reads my post so that they can see that I am not being nasty and am asking for help, as you recommended.

DETAILS MAN, DETAILS!!! How the hell can someone help you if you don't explain your problem in more details? If I call 911 and tell them i hurt, how can they tell me what i can do, unless i explain what's wrong?

Plus, that post was today, after you made (or at same time) you made the inital post here. Give them a chance to respond man.

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Whether this thread continues or is locked /deleted is up to both of you.

Pick on Distro's as much as you like, but not on each other.

My point is that he is shooting down a distro, clamming its not workable, before he even tries asking for help.

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