this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Gentoo: I hated constantly compiling and configuring. It was incredibly time consuming. If I was compiling for uncommon cases it might make sense, but I am dealing with a pretty standard dev machine.
NixOS: The configuration is kind of a pain and never really got the extra features you get beyond package management working correctly.
I refuse to believe there are people who use Gentoo seriously. There is no possible way it's not just a joke about how goofy a true stallman-esque approach to FOSS is.
I used it on an old potato chip of a Pentium 4 (this was nearly 20 years ago). It took days to compile what I wanted, which was a basic system plus KDE. I don't know what was going through my 17 year old brain. But hey, it walked me through some details of a Linux system that I wouldn't have encountered otherwise. Now I would recommend Linux From Scratch for learning and a nice, stable distro with a large, supportive community for a daily driver.
Are you me? I just posted the same thing above. I attempted to get KDE working during my freshman year of college (2004-2005) on what was either a high end P4 or Athlon X2, it would spend 10-15 hours compiling X and then break, leaving me no clue what to do but I went from using Ubuntu for about 5 months to a stage 2 Gentoo installation. I never did get it working.
I got it working, but KDE just didn't work well with the resource constraints. I should have picked something more lightweight. Oh well.
I'll give you one reason for using Gentoo: option of no systemd.
Gentoo is one of the few distros which still offer a systemdless setup given its nature of high configurability. You can tell the system-wide config file to exclude systemd support in every package it attemps to compile.
I hope you or anyone who just enjoys their linux machine running fine and happily, now be able to see what freedom can mean in the open source universe. Cheers.
I can see it being ok if you cross compile for something like an old power pc mac. Even then there are still some distros that support power pc (Maybe bsds too?).
I use it, been using it for a while. Both my desktop and laptop run it. I like it a lot and find it really easy to use. Amytime I find an issue I can pretty quickly fix it and keep my system clean. Games run great, my music production software is great, it's fast, and just overall very enjoyable to use.