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diff --git a/content/posts/gentoo.md b/content/posts/gentoo.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee89d40 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/gentoo.md @@ -0,0 +1,78 @@ +--- +title: "Why I like Gentoo." +slug: "gentoo" +created: 2024-09-06 +description: "Why I think source based distros are better." +tags: [Technology] +draft: false +--- + +### Why I prefer Gentoo over Arch. +A lot of people say very good things about gentoo linux, it is very well maintained, +It is more secure, It is lightweight and so on. But when it comes down to it, +very few people actually use gentoo, I think that is because they install it +and after a month or so they really get sick of waiting for the packages to compile +and they switch back to whatever they were using before. I know it because, +I had done that in the past, I dual-booted my machine with gentoo and arch linux +intending to only use gentoo, and arch only when I didn't have the time to wait +for the package to compile, but ended up only booting to arch and almost never +to gentoo, at that time if you were to ask me the best package manager +I would have unhesitatingly said arch's pacman, while I still think that pacman is the best +**binary** package manager +for the past few months I have started to really like gentoo and its package manager +portage and there are different reasons for that. + +### Compiling programs makes more sense than downloading binaries. +On unix-like operating systems you generally use +open-source software and that software is made to be compiled by the users specific +to their machines, but on binary based distros you use programs that are compiled for +you by someone else and again to me, personally, compiling just makes more sense. + +### It gives you more perspective to the program you use. +If you'd downloaded a binary package you would only be able to tell if a program is fast, +has enough features and so on, but you wouldn't have known how much time it takes +to compile, what the build dependencies are, and even sometimes the +programming language that it is written in. I do agree that knowing those abstract details +of a package is utterly useless for a typical end-user who is not a programmer +but for a programmer those details are very important, since you get to know what build systems are +faster what programming language compiles faster, builds better and sometimes you +get to learn some stuff that you didn't even know existed. You can build programs from source in other distros +as well but gentoo makes it easier and forces you to do that +and be honest, If you could install binary package in 10 seconds +you wouldn't even bother waiting for it to compile for 20 minutes. + +### You install less packages. +In order to avoid compilation you tent to install less pieces of software +resulting in more stable and more performant system. God forbid you if +you are using arch linux and have access to the AUR +(I had installed more than 2000 useless packages on my arch system). + +### It is more secure, lightweight and faster (at least in theory). +I have not noticed any significant difference in terms of performance +between gentoo and binary based distros and I kind of think that security +on client OSes is overrated, but for some few people these might be important +since you literally can skip some useless parts of a program (useless for you of course) +resulting in less bloated, therefore faster and more secure programs, but again I +don't really find it that important. + +### **No systemd**! +I am not against systemd but I prefer to not use it. +On gentoo the default init system is openrc and it works +with no problem. + +### Bad parts. +Like everything, it has some negative stuff about it as well, +those are + +- Compilation can take some time. +- Gentoo is the one of **the hardest** distro to manage. + +I am saying both of those with an asterisk, because +although I agree that there are some big pieces of software that you basically have to have +like a browser, (it took 6h to compile a browser on my machine) but most of the time +if software takes too much time to compile that indicates that it is +overcomplicated and you shouldn't even be using it. +Gentoo is hard to use but, that also means gentoo forces to know more, making you better at +system administration. + +So, that is all. |