linuxplanet.com — GNU/Linux offers a bewildering variety of flavors -- or distributions, as they're called. To a newcomer's eye, many of these seem virtually identical to each other.Yet, the more you learn about a distribution and the community that surrounds it, the more different they become.
Jan 2, 2009 View in Crawl 4
gothaliceJan 4, 2009
I've used Gentoo for every desktop and server I have built since before they used year-based version designations. All of these machines have unbelievable reliability (multi-year uptimes, go-go kernel modules!), response to new threats, and ease of maintenance with a package system rivaled by none. (With the exception of the every-2-years make.profile changes. -Those- are a nightmare.)Ironically, building from a stage1 install takes half as long as updating everything in a prebuilt stage3...
daphoenixJan 4, 2009
Poor troll is poor.
sokkratezJan 5, 2009
Not seeing your point. I'm pretty happy with Vista. Things like non-interoperable package files between Linux distros is something that needs addressing, though.I didn't use extremes as you did, though. Didn't say anything about "massive" unification or "lost" innovation. Less of one, more of the other. Linux and most of its users (not to mention non-users, which I think is who developers need to worry about right now) would benefit.
jbhannahJan 11, 2009
I've used Gentoo before too, and it's a good distro, and despite the learning curve if you take the time you can make a Gentoo box into the most stable, secure, and just plain fast Linux machine you can find. Like I said though, it's just not the same anymore; someone needs to really step up and get its development and community bases into shape and get it moving again.And yes, I feel your pain: I have done stage1 Gentoo installations. It is kinda hypnotizing watching thousands of compiler commands scroll by for hours at a time…
huertanixJun 11, 2009
Slackware == WIN!