Comment Re:Why I like gentoo.. (Score 3, Interesting) 438
Having switched from Debian to Gentoo on my fastest machines (and one pretty slow one, relatively), I can definately say a couple things.
1: Debian is really good for server admins who don't want to bother editing their config files a lot.
2: Debian Stable, however, is not all it's cracked up to be.
I switched a long-time Debian system (it started as Slink... then went to Potato... then to Woody) over to Gentoo because I encountered something that should never exist in a "stable" tree: A stable package depending on an unstable one.
Namely, sendmail. Sendmail would crash on run, unless you have Glibc 2.3 installed, which is in Unstable. Attempting to go to unstable to get Glibc 2.3, caused apt to crash when it was trying to parse the new package list. (Probably my fault, though it works just FINE in stable @_@)
Out of absolute frustration, I switched to postfix... then switched distros shortly thereafter. Mainly because the box got upgraded from a P-166 to a P3-600... but I'd wanted to reload that box for a while.
The switch, of course, was not painless: I had grown too accustomed to point #1, and did not really know how to configure the services the box was running manually. I do _now_, thanks to Gentoo forcing me to learn it.
In the end:
Debian is an easy, (usually) server friendly distribution with a superior package management system (compared to RPM, the person who suggested that the way to avoid dependency hell was to specify both packages on the command line either hasn't dealt with enough RPMs yet, or knows more than I do)
Gentoo is a not-quite-as-easy, enthusiast distribution that is very good at making a fully optimized system a reality, with an easily expansive package system (ever tried to make a .DEB? *shudder*), and is definately a good Linux learning experience. (This is based on experience and comments from some of my friends)
And with 1 good binary distro, and 1 good source distro, who could ask for anything more?
1: Debian is really good for server admins who don't want to bother editing their config files a lot.
2: Debian Stable, however, is not all it's cracked up to be.
I switched a long-time Debian system (it started as Slink... then went to Potato... then to Woody) over to Gentoo because I encountered something that should never exist in a "stable" tree: A stable package depending on an unstable one.
Namely, sendmail. Sendmail would crash on run, unless you have Glibc 2.3 installed, which is in Unstable. Attempting to go to unstable to get Glibc 2.3, caused apt to crash when it was trying to parse the new package list. (Probably my fault, though it works just FINE in stable @_@)
Out of absolute frustration, I switched to postfix... then switched distros shortly thereafter. Mainly because the box got upgraded from a P-166 to a P3-600... but I'd wanted to reload that box for a while.
The switch, of course, was not painless: I had grown too accustomed to point #1, and did not really know how to configure the services the box was running manually. I do _now_, thanks to Gentoo forcing me to learn it.
In the end:
Debian is an easy, (usually) server friendly distribution with a superior package management system (compared to RPM, the person who suggested that the way to avoid dependency hell was to specify both packages on the command line either hasn't dealt with enough RPMs yet, or knows more than I do)
Gentoo is a not-quite-as-easy, enthusiast distribution that is very good at making a fully optimized system a reality, with an easily expansive package system (ever tried to make a
And with 1 good binary distro, and 1 good source distro, who could ask for anything more?
