• ter_maxima@jlai.lu
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    1 hour ago

    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.

  • banazir@lemmy.ml
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    7 hours ago

    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.

  • tuckerm@feddit.online
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    9 hours ago

    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.

  • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    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.

    • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.uk
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      5 hours ago

      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”…?

          • That would make a huge difference.

            I ran Gentoo back in the early aughts; it was hella better than Redhat, but it felt like I was constantly compiling stuff, and new installs and upgrades could sometimes take more than a day. I don’t remember what I jumped to after Gentoo, but I’ve never considered it again because of the lack of prehbuilt binaries. It seemed bitcoinish to have thousands of people wasting CPU cycles compiling the same package when it could be compiled once and redistributed.

            Where Gentoo is nice is in the build flags: there’s really no way to get around compiling yourself if you want to exclude optional dependencies, and Gentoo had that in spades. I am just not sure how much that’s actually used anymore, but having binaries gives you the best of both worlds.

            Thanks for posting that; I may have to re-investigate Gentoo.