Debian or Gentoo?

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brucedeluxe169

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Aug 24, 2004
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OK, so I've been using Ubuntu for months and months now and am very goddamn familiar with it and alot of the basic fundamentals of the OS structure and command line. At this point, I want something more.... fun.

So I ask all you Linux gurus.... Debian, or Gentoo for my next main distro? I want to learn even more about the insides of Linux, but have been hearing bad things about the compile times (supposedly every other day you have to spend hours compiling updates), and about the portage system.
Is Debian a better choice? I hear that you have to set most of it up yourself, but I wonder if it will offer me the same learning experience (while at the same time not beeing TOO hard to get into...)

anyone?
 
a couple of mis-conceptions
With Gentoo yes you do build the entire system pretty much from scratch that include's compiling AND configuring

Once the initial system is built (on my Core2 2.4GHz was at a GNOME desktop within 8hours, but I have archived my config files from last build ;) ) compiling really isn't that much of an issue

IF you run ARCH (ie so called stable) you may get a few packages appearing to update (ONLY if you want to and ONLY if you sync), if you run ~ARCH (I run ~amd64) you may get a couple a day (today there was 3)
The majority of the time these are small packages and it takes longer to actually sync the tree then to compile them and you really never notice...

Every now and again something big will come along (dbus got bumped to 1.# and a load of other packages had to be re-built ~ 1h, also GNOME-2.18 will be in ~ARCH in a month or two), but even still you just have them running in a terminal (or even overnight!) you machine is still fully usable (unless you wanted to game.. but then you just don't upgrade right there and then!)

its all about choice if you want to upgrade then upgrade, if you don't don't


As to debian it actually configures everything for you. I just installed Etch-RC2 onto my NSLU2 (266MHz 32Mbyte RAM) and literally after 2hours it just rebooted and I have SWAT operational to sort out SMB share and ssh working - really nothing to it


Personally if you really want to learn abt the guts of linux, go for gentoo it will force you to use the coreutils and it is soo much fun.
Debian... does just work and because they spend alot of effort ensuring that it is stable and secure they are behind the curve w.r.t. packages (etch ships with kernel 2.6.18 while 2.6.21 is due soon)
 
ok then, Gentoo it is.....

:) it seems like ever since I started using Linux i've been formatting every other week :) (and i'm not complaining, it sure is fun learning new things)
 
brucedeluxe169, if you have newer hardware (specifically the JMicron controller), be prepared for some issues with the current Gentoo 2006.1 boot disks. The kernel on the install media is OLD and lacking support for some now common hardware. If you have the JMicron, dig up an old PCI IDE controller from somewhere, or boot from a different LiveCD to install from. Another problematic piece of hardware is the newer Marvel Yukon2 network interface. The current sky2 driver just doesn't work well, you are better off using a different nic at this time.
 
or... download the Sabayon liveDVD (most recent liveCD out I believe) and use that to install

I don't mean install Sabayon (even though it is Gentoo-based), I mean use it to get to a working kernel/desktop with all yr hardware detected and start the install

The issue as describe is the Official Gentoo LiveCD is quite a few months old now and while it is still very good it's kernel lacks drivers that were mentioned. There are a couple of unnoficial boot-CD's flying around with these drivers in, but with Gentoo any bootCD will do

this isn't gentoo-specific btw, all distro install disc's older then a couple of months suffer this
 
i started off my linux experience with ubuntu 6.06, which is quite old by now and I never had a problem with any of my hardware being detected. thanks for the heads up tho!

this weekend is gonna be interesting :)
 
Debian probably won't offer anything new or "fun" since you're switching from Ubuntu. Definitely try Gentoo for a different experience.

Beware though, keeping my Gentoo system updated took a couple hours a week on average. Once the novelty of learning a new system wore off, I no longer found this fun, but annoying.
 
jimmyb said:
Beware though, keeping my Gentoo system updated took a couple hours a week on average. Once the novelty of learning a new system wore off, I no longer found this fun, but annoying.
Click to expand...

:D Here is a fun tip: Let cron handle tree syncs while you're sleeping. Review the updated packages every day (takes about a minute), and start the compiling. Go do something else. Check back much later, maybe before going to sleep, to do an etc-update. :D

Watching gcc output is like watching paint drying. So don't do it.

Daily updates might be excessive. Maybe do updates weekly?

It's all about how you manage your time.
 
i was under the impression that you could still use the system while ggc was compiling w/e updates you wanted....

anyone know how well suited for a laptop gentoo would be? I will be testing it on an older Socket A system at first, but would like to move it to my laptop eventually in place of Ubuntu...
 
brucedeluxe169 said:
i was under the impression that you could still use the system while ggc was compiling w/e updates you wanted....
Click to expand...

Of course. I meant "Go do something else" as in go do some work, web browse, or whatever. Just don't sit and watch gcc do its thing. Come back to it when you're ready to deal with it.
 
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