[PLUG] Report: Gentoo Linux

[Phil Tomson]

I installed Gentoo over the last few days and I thought I'd give a small
review.

First of all, check out the gentoo site: http://gentoo.org it's a very
nicely done.  Well organized.  Docs are clearly written.

I was interested in trying Gentoo because of an installation review I
read at Slashdot a few weeks back.  Gentoo seemed to offer another
alternative (the other being Debian) to RPM dependency hell.  It does
this by using the BSD portage system.  All packages are downloaded as
source and then compiled automatically. For example, if you want KDE you
simply type:
emerge kde

The emerge script then goes off and figures out which packages to
download, downloads them and compiles them in order of dependency. 
After it's done, you've got KDE.

Another advantage is that since you're compiling binaries from source
you get optimized binaries for your architecture ( = greater speed).
So, while it does take quite a lot longer to install gentoo than most
other distros, you'll generally get better performance especially on
newer processors.

I started by downloading the 16MB minimal install iso from the gentoo
site and burned it on a CDR.  I followed the x86 install instructions
from the Gentoo site.  I still have a dial-up connection, so this all
took a couple of DAYS. I also followed their desktop configuration
instructions but installed GNOME instead of KDE.  In both cases their
instructions were clear, accurate and seemed to be up to date. 
Alternatives were offered for many things - for example you could choose
your own logging package and three were offered (I went with metalog).

When all was finished I ended up with a couple of problems:
1) I couldn't su to root from a user account.  I found that I needed to
add the user to the 'wheel' group and all was well after that.
2) I installed on a laptop so I wanted APM (advanced power management)
to work, but it didn't work initially.  I found that I forgot to add
'apm' to the modules.autoload file.  All was well after doing that.

I've been installing a lot of apps using emerge in the last couple of
days (I'm typing this on Evolution on the gentoo'ed laptop) and it's all
worked flawlessly.

Bottom line:
1) You should have a fast connection to install Gentoo since it needs to
download pretty much everything (including the kernel sources- which you
have to configure and compile a kernel during the install)
2) It's not for newbies.  This is not a Mandrake or Lycoris install
(Lycoris would probably be at the opposite polarity from Gentoo - I've
installed it as well, and I think that pretty much ANYONE could install
it.  Lycoris actually brings up a Solitaire game as it installs.), but
if you're yearning for the old days when you had complete control over a
Linux install then you'll appreciate Gentoo.
3) It's kind of subjective, but I do think there is a noticeable
performance boost on my laptop (previously I had Mandrake 7.1 on it).
I'm sure it's partially due to the fact that gentoo didn't install a lot
of daemons I don't need and partially due to the optimized binaries.
4) The portage system is very nice and it's probably even a bit simpler
to use than Debian's apt.

I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars (****_ ;-)

Phil