As someone who's done this backwards (I installed SuSE temporarily so I could do an Alternative re-install of Gentoo from it), I would say... "don't feel bad about this".On Thursday 13 January 2005 06:31, Me wrote:
Don't hesitate to ask any questions.
That's my problem. I've been using SuSE for so long I feel I should know more. I feel embarrassed asking what are probably trivial questions to most on here but are big issues for me.
After all, the point of a binary distribution is to move as much of the complicated backend commands (and knowledge) away from the sight of the end-users-- especially a corporate workstation distribution like SuSE, where the end user most likely has no use for such knowledge, or power to implement it if they did have such knowledge.
I certainly found that dropping back down to a binary distro after using Gentoo drew upon what I had learned from Gentoo-- but that was mostly because I had used Gentoo, and was used to being able to run certain programs that SuSE does not offer (by design) and have a certain level of flexibility that SuSE does not offer (by design). Once you get used to working with one hand tied behind your back (and sometimes one foot as well) though, SuSE is very nice and works very well. So thinking about it in reverse, I can see very easily how one could get confused by seemingly "basic" questions if coming to Gentoo from SuSE-- especially when it comes to issues such as dealing with configuration files like /etc/fstab. Under SuSE, these things are managed by the configuration tools (which the user is meant to use without knowing how they work precisely), and furthermore, (if you do happen to know how to manage the file yourself, you will find that) the configuration tools often manage these things in a non-standard way (because they can, because the user is not meant to be poking around under the hood anyway, and it makes the whole front-end package work better in the end, which is what is important for a distro like SuSE). So even if you did learn how SuSE works, you wouldn't know much about anything other than SuSE (which is not the goal, in this case).
So don't be embarrassed; we don't bite. You can't learn unless you ask, and asking shows that you want to learn, and we're Gentoo users. We *love* people who want to learn, and we don't blame you for not knowing already. We don't even usually blame you for not trying to find out yourself before you ask (though we will poke you about that ;-) ). We may be l33t, but we're not egotistical (we're too muddy from playing around in the depths of our systems to be prideful ;-) )
And don't be afraid: you will discover that you can do much more even with what you think are your "limited resources and knowledge" than what you currently think you can. Just read the instructions (in this case, the Handbook, but this goes for most everything at first) and follow them precisely. Even if you think you know what the instruction is meant to do and think you know a more concise way of doing it, just do exactly what the instruction says. I cannot tell you how many times I have made that mistake (and paid for it). You will discover that as you progress with following the instructions by rote, that the "big picture" becomes clear as to how things fit and work together, and you can start improvising with more confidence. This is the way Gentoo is designed, and the design works (it's not completely perfect, but it's pretty doggone close).
It may all seem very hard at first (it helps to just follow by rote and not think too much), but you will be surprised at how quickly the whole package becomes easier-- and more coherent-- than something like SuSE (even though SuSE is quite excellent for what it is).
Welcome!
Holly
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