On February 28, 2003 04:27 pm, Daniel Carrera wrote: > 1) How complete is the set of ebuilds? For reference: I consider Mandrake > and RedHat to be fairly complete distributions. They carry most of what > anyone would want.
very complete. and with the search function, you can locate a list of packages that handle any topic, go to the host site, check it out, and install it if you like how it sounds. > 2) How quickly do ebuilds follow new code releases? Will I always be stuck > a version behind or will I be able to try out new stuff soon after it comes > out? the ebuild for kde 3.1 came out as "stable" less than a week after the release (as opposed to redhat which only has ebuilds for 8.1 i believe, and they don't work very well from what i've heard.) > 3) One thing I like about Debian's apt-get is that once you have Debian > installed, you can upgrade to new versions without having to reinstall. > This is in contrast to RPM distros. If I have RedHat 7.3, the best way to > move to 8.0 is to backup my data, wipe the disk and reinstall. > Is Gentoo like Debian in this respect? upgrading your gentoo system can be tricky since the only time you "upgrade" a gentoo box is to use a new glibc and compiler. but i've heard that some people have done it without rebooting... i myself have never bothered since all the latest software works just fine w/ 1.2 (gcc 2.95). upgrading individual packages (say, kde) is stupid simple. "emerge kde" and watch it build. > 4) How easy is it to create my own ebuilds? I often like to install from > source, but I'd like to keep the benefits of package management. there are howtos, but i have yet to find a need to do it myself. building an rpm is supposed to be more complicated though. > 5) Is Gentoo really that much faster? Will it make a greater difference on > an old computer (think P133) or on a new computer (think Athlon XP/MP)? NIGHT AND DAY. i was a redhat junkie and when i made the switch to gentoo, i found the speed to be great. i think that the boost comes from two things: (a) all packages are built for your architecture, not filled with garbage you don't use, and (b) the default install is real basic. essentially all you need for a working gentoo system is perl, ncurses, iptables, gcc, and bash. 'course that isn't much fun.... dude try it! it's awesome. i'll never switch to another distro. everything is standards based, and simple to administer, and YES it works great on old boxes. i've heard of 486s running gentoo as a firewall and my pII233 is running the following with absolutely no problems: apache php mysql sendmail bind samba nfs granted, i don't get a lot of traffic, but it handles all of my files for my desktop (~150gb) and it doesn't even stutter. the last and favourite part for me is the lack of corporate involvement in gentoo (note that it's gentoo.ORG). linux is by the community for the community, and lately i've seen some dodgy things happening in the other distro camps (mainly redhat and suse). because gentoo is basically just portage, everything else is in the hands of many, rather than a select few. ...just plain cool. -- a nation which makes the final sacrifice for life and freedom does not get beaten. - kemal atat�rk -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
