I used Gentoo for ages.... it was the only distro I'd consider for my personal projects. Eventually, the amount of time it took to compile packages wore me out and I switched to fedora. Maybe I'm just old but watching gcc fly by for hours on end to compile X11 was neat but is not how I want to spend my Saturday anymore. Maybe I'll build out a VM for old times sake....
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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you know now you can install binaries right ???
defeats the purpose? Also, like I mentioned, I used it ages ago....binary packages when I was using it weren't very common. I see they "went binary" a few years back... but then, why bother with Gentoo?
because you get more install scripts for packages already in unofficial overlay and its easy to tweak with
I'm in the same boat as you. Loved it for what it was on my old Pentium 2 (no internet). Learner a lot and had a blast. Not a daily driver now I have time constraints and binary packages lose what made it special. Happy on Arch for personal stuff and Debian for mission critical stuff.
Neat
USE flags are addictive.
they are :)
Gentoo is great. I used it for a few years 20 years ago and I still think the package manager is the best I've ever used. I wouldn't use Gentoo today, but I'm really glad I went through the install and maintenance process. It didn't make me a guru, but I did learn a thing or two about Linux.
Me too!
I used Gentoo almost exlusively from like 2003 to maybe 2012 or 2013. I switched to Arch about then. But quite recently I made the switch back to Gentoo on my primary box and I'm happy I did.
Only thing I still need to do to really make it long-term sustainable for my particular use is to set up a build server on my network. My "primary box" is in the room where I sleep and I need it dark and quiet when I'm sleeping. Can't have MOBO color-shifting LEDs and fan sounds overnight. And I can't compile something like Chromium in less than the 15-to-16-ish hours I'm awake in a given day. (And I'd prefer to compile it myself rather than using a binary package.) Hence the need for a build server.
Interested in why you went back to Gentoo after Arch.
I use Arch (btw) and tried Gentoo back in the day, but it's always in the back of my mind that compiling source could be "better"...?
So, I've been using Arch Linux ARM on Raspberry Pis for some "desktop systems" as well as for a janky-ass NAS solution, but that project is kindof dying. They go many months in a row sometimes without any package updates. It's wild. And when people ask WTF is going on and ~~offer~~ beg to be allowed to help in some way, the admins lock the thread.
So, I've been looking to switch my Raspberry Pi's to something that doesn't depend so much on some "project" out there to be able to continue to use.
The main Gentoo project fully supports ARM. And even if it didn't, it'd be a lot easier to use Gentoo without support than Arch.
Switching my main box (not a Raspberry Pi -- it's an x86_64 system) to Gentoo was basically for the purpose of trying out Gentoo again and evaluating whether I want to take the plunge and switch everything to Gentoo.
Aside from that, there's SystemD which is yucky. (Yes, I know about Artix, but when last I tried it, it didn't really feel "ready for prime time". It depends a lot on the main Arch repos.)
Plus, I do kindof like the idea of "more control over my system(s)". Configuring/compiling my own kernel (yes, you can do that on Arch, it's much less "in the spirit of" Arch) to make it as minimal as possible and disable everything I don't need. And of course USE flags are a plus if you want a light system.
Anyway, those are my main reasons.
Ah, Ok, yeah Arch on ARM is struggling at the moment
I have / had some Ras Pis on it, but they wrapped up .. Pi0? a while back, so had to look at Raspbian (or whatever it's called now)... I'd not considered Gentoo for them... hmmm
Maybe I'll check that out
Thanks
Running a couple of Pis with Gentoo myself right now. It works as well as anything, although unless you're very patient you'll want to set up a binary package host (or distcc or something) to take the load off the Pi's somewhat anemic processor.
gentoo is less about compiling from source (I mean it can be about that too) and more about having a lot of choice and really nice tooling. it's in some ways a bunch more stable and declarative than arch. packaging your own stuff is even easier and you can just have most packages be stable while only running unstable version of the packages you explicitly care about :)
I have a soft spot for Gentoo, even though I haven't used it in years. It was one of my first experiences with Linux, since it was installed in one of the computer labs in college. I just remember that the windows had this physics jiggle effect when you dragged them around. I was so surprised that Linux had a more "fun" aesthetic than Mac or Windows did.
The “fun” aspect was what drew me to BeOS when it was near its heyday. What that thing would do in comparison to Winbloze at the time and the user experience in general was astonishingly more pleasant.
I remember their simple web server called Diner I had a website hosted on an older machine running Diner in my lab and it was just always on and when my office got DSL I felt like a king having that site up and accessible from anywhere, knowing it was on a box in my office and running Diner on BeOS.
It sounds like a cool distro but I don't see any advantages compared to NixOS, aside from maybe the option to make it more minimal for constrained environments.
it's a lot less scuffed in some ways while still giving you a lot of control and a lot of tools for declarative system management. it's also waaay better documented. it's comfy.
Why does every one need to compare every distro to NixOS? We get it. It's neat. It's immutable. It's indestructible. But they are fundamentally different stuffs.
Completely different -- nixos is about repeatability, while Gentoo is about build optimization, customization, and performance.
I tried it for a bit -- it is similar to freebsd in terms of the package install process.
Yummy
This looks like a lolly of some kind, I want to eat it
It looks like a guitar pick to me. 🙃
Damn, it looked like candy to me too until I read your comment. Now all I see is candy guitar pick.
I tried to make this logo from scratch in Blender for a wallpaper and kinda couldn't get the shape right because the angle of the actual logo is a bit weird.
https://www.pling.com/p/1788876
Good to know that I can use this official model.
:D
What flavor is it?
you can have it any flavour you want :)
Mmm blueberry
purple
Mkay
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