Vitali wrote:
To be honest I dont understand the fuss about Gentoo.
I do understand the point about optimisation and that it is possible to
get better results with Gentoo.
Not so much better results, more a case of better performance. If you
build a system that does not have to think about things it will not use,
then what build that functionality in. Kind of like using a generic
kernel versus building your own.
However, Debian is very capable
Very much so!
and offers the same functionality plus
there is apt-build package which enables to build optimised packages for
specific target machine. Moreover, Debian installer is simple and fast,
enabling to install base system in 10-15 minutes maximum.
I used Debian for a few years, then started a switch to Gentoo about two
years back. IMHO, Debian is a great distro. One of the best. Gentoo
simply offers greater flexibility in terms of base install and package
installation.
If you build your kernel optimised to run on a P4 instead of a 386, why
not build your apps likewise. Also, if you're not going to run Postgres
with Exim, why build Exim with support for Postgres??
I've not used apt-build, but I do recall talk of source builds with
options ~2000. If Debian has managed to get source builds working with
apt, this is great. Do they allow you to tweak the make options too??
Installing a Debian base is quick, but this is because it's not
optimised per platform and is binary based. Same as many distros.
Lindows (erm, I mean Linspire) builds PDQ to full GUI quicker than the
best Redmond offering.
Anyway, I dont want to satrt flame
Oh, go on!
and holy wars,
Goddammit, why not?!
I just want to point
out that there is always a choice and there are other versions of Linux
which are not less capable than Gentoo.
Absolutely. Again, FOSS *is* all about choice. Gentoo fits a
requirement. Debian likewise. I have a mind to use Debian in an upcoming
project as it is the best solution to the requirement. Gentoo has a
place also. As do other OSes.
Vitaly
P.S. Btw, Gentoo is not certified for any type of commercial or any other
serious software. Well, Debian is not certified as well :-).
True. Nor *BSD. But look where they are used. Think Google. From the
little I know, I'd choose Debian/FreeBSD/Gentoo over a 'certified' Linux
distro any day. Certification simply means they're get it running...on
supported hardware.
It is, however, an interesting question as how many commercial entities
would be happy to hold up their hands to using non-commercial *NIX based
operating systems. Certainly those FreeBSD people would be more inclined
to on the basis that there is a greater foundation and history of
success on that OS. Yet Linux has come on leaps and bounds since the
early days of the 'Linux is not enterprise ready' comments. During 2.4
kernel we could see a huge stability improvements over the 2.2 series,
especially as the 2.5 additions we ported back into 2.4 prior to the 2.6
release. Now 2.6 is so very stable there's still no 2.7 tree. I cannot
wait for 2.8...except for the 100mb source download!
Regs.
Iain.
