Gentoo users?

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I'm currently installing Gentoo Linux on my test machine just for fun. I've installed it before, but I got rid of it to try other distros. Does/Has anyone else here use(d) it or at least tried it for a significant deal of time? I'm a little more serious about it this time around because I like the whole challenge it takes to install it and I've seen all kinds of discussion about Ubuntu but not much variety other than that. Don't get me wrong, I really like Ubuntu too, I just want to see if it's possible to start a little variety to the Linux discussion here.

Uhm, Mint Linux? Haha. CrunchBang? jk. They are derived from Ubuntu.

I'll try gentoo.

Okay cool. I like gentoo because it actually emphasizes the Linux philosophy where you break things, fix them, and improve them (or however that goes) but then again I can't say that's emphasized in Gentoo because it's the whole point of Linux, but it just kind of feels that way to me.

I used Gentoo for several years. If the boot process would have worked from a USB-CD-drive, I still would. I Gentoo.

Maybe I should give Gentoo a shot on my ppc test machine. Debian runs slow on it.

Hmmm...I've never tried Gentoo on a ppc machine. If you decide to do that, let me know how it goes. The only experience I've had with a ppc machine is in a computer class at school where they had these macs (G4 I believe) and I hated Mac OSX's interface so much that I tried to install the ppc Ubuntu on it (I happened to have the disc right there) and the damn installer couldn't find the cd drive that the machine booted from! I didn't want to troubleshoot it like I normally would because I was already frustrated with my first experience with Mac OSX. I suppose now I could have figured out a way to get it to detect the cd drive. I suppose next school year I could try putting Gentoo on one of those macs.

Edit: In the darkness of my Mac rant, I forgot to mention that I successfully have Gentoo on my test machine, and now I'm going to go install Gnome (which takes forever because Portage compiles it, like everything else, from source).

Well, after spending 35 hours (I spent the 3 hours before this installing the base system) just letting the machine sit and compile, obsessively waiting, eager to have a complete system, I am now posting this from my test machine (I'm really not doing a very good job of promoting Gentoo). Yep, I've got Gnome running. Part of me feels kind of embarassed that I'm using a distro that compiles everything from source when I could have gotten this installed 37.5 hours ago using Ubuntu or something, the other part of me is excited about a major accomplishment that would not feel this major (if at all) if I had installed Ubuntu 37.5 hours ago. If anyone asks, I will post a picture my desktop (even though it doesn't look like much yet).

^I'm asking.

How painful a process was installation and configuration? Was the Gentoo documentation helpful during the installation? Do you have Flash and Java support?

Installation is not so painful as long as you read everything in the Gentoo handbook (the part of the documentation that teaches new users how to install it) very carefully during installation. It's nothing like installing Ubuntu, of course you could use Gentoo's automated graphical installer on the LiveCD but I hear it not only defeats the purpose of Gentoo, but sucks badly as well. The Gentoo documentation is very helpful and well-written. I still have yet to configure Flash and Java but I will be doing so soon. I believe that it's a little harder to set them up in Gentoo than major distros but it shouldn't be too hard.

After liking Gentoo a lot on my test machine, I decided to leap from Ubuntu to Gentoo on my main machine (which actually has good hardware). I've now got a total speed demon. I'm really liking it, it's about as extreme as computers get when it comes to speed. If I did 100% CLI it would probably be even faster, but I like using gnome. Gentoo is a lot of fun on a fast machine. It took me 37.5 hours to get Gentoo and gnome set up on my test machine, whereas it probably took 10 hours at the most on my main machine. It was great on my test machine for being an old machine though. Long live Gentoo Linux!

i used to primarily use gentoo, however I had enough compile from source headaches that I decided to move to Ubuntu/CentOS (depending on my use). Nothing really like doing an emerge world and not knowing if its safe to reboot or not.

I will say this though, I learned more on gentoo than any other distribution.

Well, Gentoo was okay for a while, but I don't like their poor support for my ATI card. I was locked into using ATI's proprietary driver which is a pain on a Gentoo system, and my card is so new that open source drivers just won't cut it yet. So I'm going to try Sabayon for my main machine, considering how it's based on Gentoo, and how I like portage, it might be a good choice for now anyway. Meanwhile, I'll probably try slackware on my test machine. I want to try Linux From Scratch someday but I don't know if I'm up for it yet. I might put it over or with slackware after using slack for a while.

What is the language in your signature?

ruveyn

Tuvan is my guess.

Sometimes I make really weird choices without thinking! I went ahead and installed Sabayon, and after rebooting after installing, I remembered that since Sabayon is based on Gentoo, it's going to be just as bad of a hassle to get ATI drivers working as it would be on plain old Gentoo. My career with Gentoo was fun but I'm trying Fedora for awhile, at least until there's better Gentoo support for my video card. As for the test machine, I think I'm going to dive into Linux from Scratch instead of Slackware and have some true fun.

A constructed language, I developed. The text means: A dream is only that until you reach it. After that it becomes something easy.

Would you Gentooistoj think that a modern Gentoo installs on an ancient P3 based laptop within a reasonable time? (including X11 and KDE) or would it take like a week?