This blog post details how the Gentoo Developers have added a “deblob” USE flag to remove any non-free code within the Linux Kernel. Its goal is to “remove binary blobs from kernel sources to provide libre license compliance”. While we’re at it, Kernel News has an in-depth look at Gentoo Linux.
Why does this article show the Debian logo?
Guess it was interpreted as debian lobotomied instead of de-blob.
Another solution would be to fetch the OpenBSD installation floppy.
I had a quick look through this; I do have fond memories of Gentoo, even though I haven’t run it in years (how time flies…). Last time I tried, probably 3 or 4 years ago, I remember being put off by how long it took to emerge –sync compared to what I remembered. Any current Gentoo user around? Has this improved at all, or kept increasing exponentially?
The article ends with the following:
Pros
* Large Community, Easy to Find Help
* Extremely Customizable
* Excellent Performance
* Huge Amount of Software Available
* Always Use the Latest Software Versions
* No Need to Reinstall / Upgrade Every 6-9 Months
* Multiple Versions of Software Available to Install
Cons
* Not Many Graphical Configuration Tools
* Installation Takes Forever
* Must be Familiar with Linux to Install / Maintain
From my experience, this misses the (by far) biggest benefit of Gentoo: how much one learns going through an install, especially when one has only ever been exposed to more integrated distributions.
More pros:
Great for software developers.
Utilizes your 4+ cores.
cons:
far too many use flags that are always changing.
Maybe it’s just me, but I learned a ton more from the Linux From Scratch project than from Gentoo. All Gentoo ever taught me was arcane flags and three-day build sessions just to end up with a non-working system. LFS on the other hand, taught me what a kernel is and how to compile it, what the boot procedure is from start to finish, and what all those arcane directories under / are for. Not to mention, I actually managed to get it built and self-booting within 48 hours.
All that said, I have great respect for the Gentoo team and all they have accomplished.
I have never tried LFS, but several years back I was a heavy user of Gentoo and I really did learn helluva lot of Linux and its internals. It wasn’t always an easy and smooth ride with Gentoo, but having to figure out why something doesn’t compile properly and then whip out one or another patch for it sure did teach me a lot.
I once even went so far as to create a fully-working Gentoo livecd where you could actually install and compile software (though the changes were all stored in RAM and would be lost when rebooted). Was a great experiment
That said, I am glad Gentoo is still going strong. I’d love to go back whenever I can afford a multicore PC, but with this single-core one it’s just too painful to compile everything.
What’s your flavor now?
Even when talking about Linux distros, why does this question still seem wildly inappropriate?
I was actually being serious this time.
I was curious as to what she had settled on.
My flavor? Hmm. *tastes her finger* Somewhat salty.
Oh wait! I mean Mandriva.
LOL! Thanks for the imagery!
Yeah, I think that suits you – at least my image of you. It’s a solid platform with good tools. Good for a power user but not requiring power user knowledge to mess around with it and personalize it.
It’s a solid platform with good tools. Good for a power user but not requiring power user knowledge to mess around with it and personalize it.
Indeed. I have tried several distros, but I found Mandriva had everything a power-user could need but without making the distro hard to use even for a novice. Sure, there are some things I could complain about but they are mostly non-distro-specific things. Overall it is a really good distro
Yeah, I think that suits you – at least my image of you.
Oh my, do I have an OSNews stalker?
🙂 No, no, it’s just that you post regularly.
Back in 2002 when I built my first Gentoo box, the compile time required a lot a patience. Today on a modern, multi-code system, it compiles stuff pretty quickly. It still takes some time, but it’s not nearly as bad.
Another Pro:
-Rolling Distro
Syncing is still slow, but compilation is now fast. With a ram disk (ddr2 ramfs) and a quad core, 99% of packages take less than 1 hours to build, most of them take 2 minutes (1 minute to scan the slow portage tree and the other to compile and install).
I don’t update that much. Once you have a working gentoo system, you upgrade what you want when you want, there is no benefit to keep all packages updated at all time. Some older versions are faster. If you doesn’t need newer feature, well, just keep those, packages don’t need to be in sync like other binary based distributions.
I started using Gentoo in 2002-2003 and still now my main OS at work and one of my two OS at home. I learn linux by & with Gentoo. As review points out, I became addicted to that level of control over my OS but it’s not for everyone. And you NEVER reinstall anymore and still keep a lean OS. My base install is from March 2006 (when I moved to 64bits). Even changing my whole PC nowadays only requires me to recompile a kernel with new drivers for new motherboard/cpu, but system remains identical.
emerge –sync takes 25sec on my PC but I update once a day in a cron job (automatically). More generally I would say, build time is shorter as multicores CPU have really speed up build time dramatically.
Edited 2010-05-01 14:13 UTC
I built a gentoo machine once a few years back. But in the end (for what I was doing) I didn’t find it any more useful than installing fedora or ubuntu. It was a fun experience and I am sure it was more efficient than other distributions, but I didn’t really need that extra efficiency at the time and it seemed easier to find RPMs or apt installs than to get and build apps from scratch.
I was a Gentoo user from around 2003 to 2009. I have been on Kubuntu for about a year.
Before that I ran LFS for a year or so too.
At the time it was very quick on the hardware of the day. I don’t see that degree of importance on speed anymore, especially with modern hardware.
The high maintenance of Gentoo took it’s toll on me. When serious portage issues arrived I had had enough. I just wiped my last Gentoo box to run Centos the other day. Respect to them but for me, I’ve done my time.
http://funroll-loops.info/
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