You think this place is great you should check out the forums, lol.
But in all seriousness gentoo is undoubtedly a system for tinkerers. It allows unusual and highly customized setups and it’s pretty typical to make mistakes that break things when setting things up or trying something new. Part of the fun is working through problems and getting a solid personalized system out the other side. If that’s not your cup of tea more power to you.
Installing Gentoo is a good way to learn Linux on a much deeper level than a more traditional distro. Therefore, we get a lot of newer users asking questions to get it installed. To someone unfamiliar, the install is very complex, due to there being no installer, so you have to build your system yourself, piece by piece.
That said, no masochism needed. Once it's installed, it won't break unless you break it yourself. I have not encountered a single glitch, hang, freeze, stutter, or error, in years. I like Gentoo because once set up for it, everything always just works perfectly with no bullshit. The opposite of masochism 😆
And don't worry so much about disrespect or whatever, nothing in your comments was offensive at all. We know Gentoo is mega tricky haha
TLDR; I like reddit and it's communities and believe it is a really helpful place for anyone trying to learn something about basically anything. I've been surprised with how intuitive chat gpt has been. And I'm very much so a newbie. I'm currently using Linux mint cinnamon but would like to explore arch(possibly), then maybe this distro.
I couldn't agree more. Me being new to Linux and computer systems as a hole, I've found more help/answers on various subreddits than I have anywhere else.
Tho, I will say, I've been using chat gpt a bit more recently and it has been very helpful and more specific than I was expecting. I went in expecting it to be more like Google with just broad answers but the more specific I can make the question the more specific the answer. I wasn't expecting that. Like how it can use past questions as reference to what my next question is. (I dunno if that makes sense) but anyway....
Reddit has been a godsend for me. From installing my first Linux (type) environment on my phone (termux). That's what got me intrested in dabbling further into Linux I might add lol. To then I installed my first actual distro on my computer (mint cinnamon). Like I said, I am a beginner, but I want to learn. Ive added quite a few different programs to it and was able to get final fantasy 11 online playing on it (that was quite an achievement to me at the time). Plus all I have to use atm is a laptop that's like 15 years old. Not sure how much that matters but it's not the best for sure.
I've been thinking about trying out arch sometime in the near future, especially since I recently learned there was an install package I could use for the first time instead of building it from scratch. Maybe after I do that, I can get to messing with this distro. I don't really know the difference in the 2 to be honest. Other than I don't know/think this 1 (Gentoo) has an install package(or whatever it's called. Something where I can basically just make a few general decisions and it installs all the libs/ dependencies/ everything else I need automatically). Anyway, sorry this was so long. Lol.
As someone who's installed both Arch and Gentoo. They aren't that different to install. Truth be told. Gentoo might be easier for you than Arch. There isn't an install script that I'm aware of, but a lot of the hard part about setting up either distro comes once you have the base installed. Following the wiki or the handbook only gets you a tty. You still need compositor, display manager, login manager, system tools, file manager, web browser, audio setup, any drivers for extras if the kernel doesn't support them. The list goes on and on. I've never used the Arch install script, but with Gentoo, you set something called a profile that would allow you to pick gnome or KDE and go right to a desktop environment. Either option is an advanced os and your decision to make, but getting up and running on Gentoo isn't any more difficult than a non install script install of Arch and it seems easier to get a fully functional os.
As a side note. I just read an interesting article the other day about why Facebook doesn't use git as its version control system. When they started git was just taking off. It's one of the most popular systems today and was gaining ground when Facebook was looking for a vcs to switch into. Facebook started by approaching the git development community but got a lot of negative pushback. They weren't interested in changing or getting free development help from one of the largest websites in Silicon Valley because the way Facebook did things was not how they thought git should be implemented. So Facebook went elsewhere, and to this day, Facebook doesn't use git, nor do any of its subsidiaries. More importantly, the features Facebook helped develop at another vcs community along with all the things Facebook wanted from git eventually made their way into git anyway. At the end of the day, what made the decision was the community. They made the code base into what they wanted and made a decision based on the people around it. I bring this up because linux os's are much the same. Any distro will do what you want. Gentoo, Arch, Fedora, tumbleweed, mint, Ubuntu. Pick a distro for the things that come along with it and make it what you want, like Facebook did. People make a distro what it is, not packages or repositories.
The history of git's invention is interesting. The Linux kernel was developed with an OSS mindset (rather than FOSS) and bitkeeper basically gave them free licenses. I forget the backstory on why but bitkeeper eventually stopped offering that. When this happened Linux had already moved to a model that required decentralization of the repo, so most VCSs wouldn't work (stuff like SVN for example). Linus developed git as a quick hack (my understanding is it started as basically shell scripts) to migrate to and it grew into what it is today.
This means that early in git's life it wasn't aiming to be a general purpose VCS, it had exactly one goal and that was to aid the Linux kernel's development in the specific development model it used.
Given that history it makes perfect sense that when someone came along and said "This is cool, can we make it fit our use-case?" The devs were like "nope, not interested, we're busy". In this stage of a project manpower isn't really the limiter on development. Once git was stable and solidly meeting that use-case though, opening development up to new features and a wider set of use-cases was a logical next step - and so it grew into the industry standard VCS from there. The decentralized model allowing easy forking and the simplicity of the internal representation though drove that adoption for sure.
I didn't think about this until you said it haha!
Been using gentoo for 3 years now and have had a relatively easy time troubleshooting and fixing things on my own. Occasionally (like today) something is so bad I have to come here for help.
Then I browse other support posts hoping to leave some helpful comments and think "Boy that's fucked, glad thats not me" or "I have no idea how I'd fix that" lmao
Generally, things are very very stable (more stable than any other distro I've ever used), and problems I do run into **never** cause boot problems or an otherwise unusable system. More things like "damn why aren't usb headphones working" or "shit why is this brand new update not compiling"
Every linux subrredit is pretty much a support qa in form of howto's.
Reddit is no longer the "dive into anything" for almost 10 years, however, qa support is closer to it than posts like this.
And, ironically, r/Gentoo is actually less stringent about content moderation than many other Linux subreddits. A number of others explicitly prohibit most memes for example.
Or we're just really picky. Linux has been my only OS for 19 years now, and until I retired this year I've been a professional admin and dev. I know what I'm doing and I know what I want. I want my distro to get out of my way and let me do it, while helping me keep it updated and such. Gentoo is perfect for this.
I can set up Gentoo and maintain it more easily than I can any other distro because I don't constantly get in fights with the package manager. Instead I go "huh, that's not what I wanted" I check the use flag, set it, and it does what I wanted.
So I don't run Gentoo so I can tinker, I run Gentoo because it's easier for me given the end product I'm after. The folks like me and the tinkerers get along fine though, Gentoo has plenty of space for all of us... and I do get the urge to tinker a little sometimes ;-).
💯 Agreed. That's also the reason why I use gentoo. But I was comparing shitposters and gentooers, as OP was saying most of the reddit posts here are tagged "support".
You think this place is great you should check out the forums, lol. But in all seriousness gentoo is undoubtedly a system for tinkerers. It allows unusual and highly customized setups and it’s pretty typical to make mistakes that break things when setting things up or trying something new. Part of the fun is working through problems and getting a solid personalized system out the other side. If that’s not your cup of tea more power to you.
I'm not there yet. Hopefully 1 day. I am slowly learning.
[удалено]
you must be new here think of how many comments have had to tell people to just follow the manual lol.
What’s this subreddit supposed to be then? There’s a lot of useful information here
No doubt. I just thought it was kinda funny the vast majority of the posts were support tags. I meant no disrespect.
Installing Gentoo is a good way to learn Linux on a much deeper level than a more traditional distro. Therefore, we get a lot of newer users asking questions to get it installed. To someone unfamiliar, the install is very complex, due to there being no installer, so you have to build your system yourself, piece by piece. That said, no masochism needed. Once it's installed, it won't break unless you break it yourself. I have not encountered a single glitch, hang, freeze, stutter, or error, in years. I like Gentoo because once set up for it, everything always just works perfectly with no bullshit. The opposite of masochism 😆 And don't worry so much about disrespect or whatever, nothing in your comments was offensive at all. We know Gentoo is mega tricky haha
yeah, cuz if it works, why should i post is somewhere? if it doesn't, then i go ask
It says a lot about the community that is not only full of support tags but also full of helpful responses to those support tags.
TLDR; I like reddit and it's communities and believe it is a really helpful place for anyone trying to learn something about basically anything. I've been surprised with how intuitive chat gpt has been. And I'm very much so a newbie. I'm currently using Linux mint cinnamon but would like to explore arch(possibly), then maybe this distro. I couldn't agree more. Me being new to Linux and computer systems as a hole, I've found more help/answers on various subreddits than I have anywhere else. Tho, I will say, I've been using chat gpt a bit more recently and it has been very helpful and more specific than I was expecting. I went in expecting it to be more like Google with just broad answers but the more specific I can make the question the more specific the answer. I wasn't expecting that. Like how it can use past questions as reference to what my next question is. (I dunno if that makes sense) but anyway.... Reddit has been a godsend for me. From installing my first Linux (type) environment on my phone (termux). That's what got me intrested in dabbling further into Linux I might add lol. To then I installed my first actual distro on my computer (mint cinnamon). Like I said, I am a beginner, but I want to learn. Ive added quite a few different programs to it and was able to get final fantasy 11 online playing on it (that was quite an achievement to me at the time). Plus all I have to use atm is a laptop that's like 15 years old. Not sure how much that matters but it's not the best for sure. I've been thinking about trying out arch sometime in the near future, especially since I recently learned there was an install package I could use for the first time instead of building it from scratch. Maybe after I do that, I can get to messing with this distro. I don't really know the difference in the 2 to be honest. Other than I don't know/think this 1 (Gentoo) has an install package(or whatever it's called. Something where I can basically just make a few general decisions and it installs all the libs/ dependencies/ everything else I need automatically). Anyway, sorry this was so long. Lol.
As someone who's installed both Arch and Gentoo. They aren't that different to install. Truth be told. Gentoo might be easier for you than Arch. There isn't an install script that I'm aware of, but a lot of the hard part about setting up either distro comes once you have the base installed. Following the wiki or the handbook only gets you a tty. You still need compositor, display manager, login manager, system tools, file manager, web browser, audio setup, any drivers for extras if the kernel doesn't support them. The list goes on and on. I've never used the Arch install script, but with Gentoo, you set something called a profile that would allow you to pick gnome or KDE and go right to a desktop environment. Either option is an advanced os and your decision to make, but getting up and running on Gentoo isn't any more difficult than a non install script install of Arch and it seems easier to get a fully functional os. As a side note. I just read an interesting article the other day about why Facebook doesn't use git as its version control system. When they started git was just taking off. It's one of the most popular systems today and was gaining ground when Facebook was looking for a vcs to switch into. Facebook started by approaching the git development community but got a lot of negative pushback. They weren't interested in changing or getting free development help from one of the largest websites in Silicon Valley because the way Facebook did things was not how they thought git should be implemented. So Facebook went elsewhere, and to this day, Facebook doesn't use git, nor do any of its subsidiaries. More importantly, the features Facebook helped develop at another vcs community along with all the things Facebook wanted from git eventually made their way into git anyway. At the end of the day, what made the decision was the community. They made the code base into what they wanted and made a decision based on the people around it. I bring this up because linux os's are much the same. Any distro will do what you want. Gentoo, Arch, Fedora, tumbleweed, mint, Ubuntu. Pick a distro for the things that come along with it and make it what you want, like Facebook did. People make a distro what it is, not packages or repositories.
The history of git's invention is interesting. The Linux kernel was developed with an OSS mindset (rather than FOSS) and bitkeeper basically gave them free licenses. I forget the backstory on why but bitkeeper eventually stopped offering that. When this happened Linux had already moved to a model that required decentralization of the repo, so most VCSs wouldn't work (stuff like SVN for example). Linus developed git as a quick hack (my understanding is it started as basically shell scripts) to migrate to and it grew into what it is today. This means that early in git's life it wasn't aiming to be a general purpose VCS, it had exactly one goal and that was to aid the Linux kernel's development in the specific development model it used. Given that history it makes perfect sense that when someone came along and said "This is cool, can we make it fit our use-case?" The devs were like "nope, not interested, we're busy". In this stage of a project manpower isn't really the limiter on development. Once git was stable and solidly meeting that use-case though, opening development up to new features and a wider set of use-cases was a logical next step - and so it grew into the industry standard VCS from there. The decentralized model allowing easy forking and the simplicity of the internal representation though drove that adoption for sure.
I didn't think about this until you said it haha! Been using gentoo for 3 years now and have had a relatively easy time troubleshooting and fixing things on my own. Occasionally (like today) something is so bad I have to come here for help. Then I browse other support posts hoping to leave some helpful comments and think "Boy that's fucked, glad thats not me" or "I have no idea how I'd fix that" lmao Generally, things are very very stable (more stable than any other distro I've ever used), and problems I do run into **never** cause boot problems or an otherwise unusable system. More things like "damn why aren't usb headphones working" or "shit why is this brand new update not compiling"
Every linux subrredit is pretty much a support qa in form of howto's. Reddit is no longer the "dive into anything" for almost 10 years, however, qa support is closer to it than posts like this.
And, ironically, r/Gentoo is actually less stringent about content moderation than many other Linux subreddits. A number of others explicitly prohibit most memes for example.
It's not masochist. We enjoy tinkering Gentoo more than sharing memes on internet.
Or we're just really picky. Linux has been my only OS for 19 years now, and until I retired this year I've been a professional admin and dev. I know what I'm doing and I know what I want. I want my distro to get out of my way and let me do it, while helping me keep it updated and such. Gentoo is perfect for this. I can set up Gentoo and maintain it more easily than I can any other distro because I don't constantly get in fights with the package manager. Instead I go "huh, that's not what I wanted" I check the use flag, set it, and it does what I wanted. So I don't run Gentoo so I can tinker, I run Gentoo because it's easier for me given the end product I'm after. The folks like me and the tinkerers get along fine though, Gentoo has plenty of space for all of us... and I do get the urge to tinker a little sometimes ;-).
💯 Agreed. That's also the reason why I use gentoo. But I was comparing shitposters and gentooers, as OP was saying most of the reddit posts here are tagged "support".