Gentoo vs. Ubuntu ( 3 Views )

no kitty!

They both seem fast, stable and have great package management. So which do you prefer and why?

(dilan, Finland)

...Oh boy. This thread will get ugly. Subsribes and sits back for some action.

(sadýk, Cote D'Ivoire)

As a long-time gentoo user currently running Ubuntu(dapper) on my main desktop, I have to say I much prefer gentoo. I just like portage much more than ubuntu's package manager. With portage, I have complete control over which versions of which packages I want installed. With ubuntu, I've not found a clear way to say "never upgrade this package" or "always grab the latest version of this package no matter what". I also don't like how gui-centric ubuntu is. Even after using ubuntu for a month, I still sometimes feel like I'm going to totally bork something if I manually edit config files(if I can even find them to begin with). Also, disabling root by default is just plain annoying. First thing I did when I installed ubuntu was give root a password. I fucking hate sudo. Never liked it. It has its place, but I just feel that ubuntu is totally fucking it up. I've seen several instances on the ubuntu forums where someone uses sudo for something that totally does not require root privileges(running alsamixer or something). It's like they think sudo is some magic word that you just always have to type in front of any command you type in at the console. Disabling the root account is not going to automagically educate users. I won't even go in to the gnome issue(that's another discussion altogether).

I know what you are all thinking by this point: if he hates ubuntu so much, why is he using it? Well, the hard drive holding my / partition crashed quite catastrophically a couple weeks before the end of the semester, right when I had a bunch of programming projects due. I just needed something quickly so I could keep working. Now that christmas break has started, I fully intend to start the long and arduous process of installing gentoo. In any case, my current ubuntu installation is about as far from a base breezy installation as possible. I'm using dapper repositories, and I have xorg7.0rc2+kde3.5+nvidia8174(installed from nvidia's package)+2.6.14-nitro2. So I've pretty much got it the way I like it, but all the underlying stuff still annoys me.

(berkay, Mali)

They both have there uses. Gentoo is probably a good choice when you need to do run or code an application that's some what non traditional, that is to say you want to use a feature that isn't normally included, or you don't want to use one and save space. Ubuntu would probably be a better choice when you don't actually need all that customization, just need to get it setup and going simply, and administer it easily. I won't say Gentoo is that hard to deal with on a single users bases (its what I run myself) but if you have multiple installs, like say a computer lab, it would be to big of a hassle IMHO to run Gentoo. Now there is an option to use packages with Gentoos emerge/portage system, but I still think it would probably be a better Idea to go with a normal binary packaged distro such as Ubuntu or Debian. Slackware is another choice, and I used to run that before gentoo, but I have since moved since making your own packages isn't exactly easy, and there is no dep checking (a blessing to some, curse to others, I take it as both).

I haven't used Ubuntu directly mind you.

(Ekinsu, Bahamas)

I kind of like Ubuntu for it's ease of use, but I agree with the guy two posts up...it's very dumbed down in an attempt to make it idiot proof. And I don't like that.

I have yet to try out Gentoo...maybe one of these days when I'm bored I'll check it out.

(mehmet, Barbados)

What about Madrake/Mandriva?

I know when I first installed linux a bit ago, that was the one everyone was talking about. I've recently uncovered my installation (Mandrak 9.2) and it is fast, stable, and seems fairly easy now that I have the help of the folks on linuxquestions.org.

Plus, you get rpm for packages, isn't that supposed to be the best?

(Engin, Jordan)

Quote:

Originally Posted by NulloModo

What about Madrake/Mandriva?

I know when I first installed linux a bit ago, that was the one everyone was talking about. I've recently uncovered my installation (Mandrak 9.2) and it is fast, stable, and seems fairly easy now that I have the help of the folks on linuxquestions.org.

Plus, you get rpm for packages, isn't that supposed to be the best?

HAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHA

OK I have finished now, oh wait
HAHAHAHAHAHA

RPM's for packages suppose to be the best
You not familiar with RPM-Hell then

I changed to Gentoo because of Dependancy-Hell with RPM's. I was using Mandrake until abt 2years ago. It wasn't Mandrakes fault, its just RPM's do not have anyway to track dependancies.

That has been got around in recent version of FC et al by a database, still doesnt iliminate dependacy-hell with RPM

(erdal, Mayotte)

Ubuntu is the macintosh of linux. Everything is dumbed down to the point of true idiocy. And i agree, sudo is a big mistake. So secure its insecure.

Gentoo does take along time to compile, but if your in a large server environment, you can just have one master server compile all the code and have the others rsync from that machine.

but i still wouldnt choose gentoo for anything production level....thats what centos is for!

Anyways, gentoo is a great, flexible highly customizeable desktop or home server. Ubuntu is for people who dont want to think.

(barýþ , Saint Helena)

As a first time linux user using Ubuntu right now I have to say I like it.

It's a great intro to linux if you ask me. Obviously everyone here who hates it has a pretty rigid linux background and dosen't need to have their hand held to do things which leads me to wonder why they're running it in the first place.

(merve, Tonga)

If you want to have using your operating system be a hobby, then pick gentoo.

If you want your operating system to be simply used as an environment to actually get real work done, then use a different distribution, such as Ubuntu discussed in this thread.

(cengiz, Jamaica)

I will have to say that there needs to be a distinction of what you want to use your OS for --

I am a huge BSD guy, I run it on pretty much anything server-related that I need stability and reliability out of....

but I will be damned if it wasn't time consuming to get a really nice desktop setup running (pm me if you want me to explain what I mean, since it is different for everybody)

I spent alot of time dicking around with stupid shit, manually re-compiling software with special options and alot of other things that make it not worth it to just use as a run of the mill, surf the web desktop

I played with Gentoo for a little while (a week maybe) and it was the same crap -- compile this, recompile that to work with this....I said screw that, I want an easy to use linux OS for my desktop system....and I tried out ubuntu.

As yet, I have been using it for about 2 months, doing everything that I need to do for my desktop from basic stuff like browsing the web with flash and java working well, to doing presentations and documents with openoffice, to burning cd's and dvd's with 0 problems. I even am gaming on this machine with almost no effort. that is what I really wanted out of my desktop OS.

AS for a server OS, I would have to say that I would defintely not install ubuntu on a machine I wanted to use as a server -- I don't fully trust it -- like has been said previously, everything is done with sudo, and god forbid you have to actually open up a config file manually and change something. If I was going to run a server, I would have to vote Gentoo (well really, I would vote any of the BSD's, then maybe slackware, then Gentoo).

So, for a desktop system (yes i am a power user, I do a ton of shit on my desktop) Ubuntu is the champ, and if I were to be installing a server machine and I had to only pick between the two, then I would pick Gentoo hands down.

(umut, Seychelles)

Gentoo vs. Ubuntu ( 3 Views )

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