Gentoo vs Arch?
Posted by Teufelundfuhrer@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 29 comments
I'm currently running Arch Linux on a Thinkpad t430, I've been thinking about installing Gentoo for a while. I like Gentoo, but it fucking takes forever to install. What do you guys think?
Lineage2M_Orber@reddit
They are both utter GARBAGE ... lmao ... Gaetoo and Archwhat?
PLEASE ...
I kind of understand the "hype bus" of morons thinking Arch and Gaetoo are like the "rick and morty" of linux install ... omg my belly literally hurts now
I will say this "hands down" even though you uncultured swine can't see my hands, lmao,...:
LEARN FreeBSD AND FORGET LINUX and whatever gaetoo linux and whatnot arch garbage you think/thought or was led to believe is anything LIKE UNIX FFS
the Daemon awaits you here https://www.freebsd.org the Lightbringer !!!
No_Expression6976@reddit
Bsd are boring systems, nothing to learn. The ones who want to learn something goes linux way
reader_xyz@reddit
BSD systems are just crap with 90s technology.
FindingPossibilities@reddit
Nope, companies like sony & Netflix do donate for freebsd's development and it's good as server side OS & it's highly perf. optimized for network infra that's why it's used by networking product based companies too. I think as a daily driver OS for normal people, it's not good but say if you're opening a startup then you can use freebsd as it requires no licensing issue like if you use linux you have to Opensource your customized version also which isn't the case for freebsd(incase don't want to expose your interns mistakes ;)
reader_xyz@reddit
Sony, Netflix, Apple, and a bunch of other companies throw tiny donations at the FreeBSD Foundation so they can keep stealing code from the FreeBSD community, which lets them do it with their silly and naive BSD license. This way, they get cheap labor to develop their proprietary products without giving anything back. It seems like FreeBSD developers get off on being used and abused by these companies as cheap labor. The companies that use FreeBSD just take their private modifications. FreeBSD lost to Linux a long time ago in the server space, and on the desktop, it’s just an illusion. The BSD license is a favorite of those abusers and the naive FreeBSD developers.
craig0r@reddit
What are you doing in a Linux subreddit?
FindingPossibilities@reddit
Well, even w if was able to justify his existence in linux sub but he's do'in in this post of Gentoo & arch having freebsd is like Kaibab out of nowhere in btw.
fernwhisperer@reddit
+1 FreeBSD!
Routine-Mind532@reddit
well arch have better documentation
Tdlysenko@reddit
Think about what? Just about the two distros in general?
I use both (Gentoo on my main system and server, Arch on an old laptop) and I think they're both fine for what they are. Although they both have some BSD influences (ABS and portage are both sort of extensions of the ports system) and they both market themselves to "advanced" users, they are really pretty different.
I'd say that in the grand scheme of things, Arch is willing to sacrifice options or choices in order to reduce complexity (which is what is meant by simplicity for the developers) while Gentoo is significantly more complex but also more flexible. You can change low-level system components (libc, init, compiler flags, even the package manager) much more easily on Gentoo than you can on Arch. On the flip side portage has dozens of variables and hundreds of USE flags. pacman, by contrast, has relatively few options even compared to something like apt. The Arch Build System allows you to compile and customize specific packages relatively easily, but if you want to set options across your entire system portage is more efficient.
It depends what you want. If you want really fine-grained control, Gentoo is worth it. If you don't need that level of control and are generally fine with leaving that stuff to your distro developers, then Arch is also fine.
Either-Echo-7074@reddit
What is fine grain control? I hear a lot of people talking about the extra control with Gentoo. Practically speaking what can you do with all this extra control? Genuine question.
FindingPossibilities@reddit
Arch is like choosing from pre-made Lego sets. Gentoo is like manufacturing your own custom Lego pieces from raw plastic.
Arch lets you customize, but Gentoo lets you fundamentally rebuild everything from scratch. With Gentoo you can disable/remove every possible feature you want granularly & have more control on how you can compile every single pkg. Also, since you compile everything inc. kernel, pkgs/software for your very own CPU, everything will be nicely optimized(depending upon you).
BobFloss@reddit
I don't really see what makes you say that. I have used both a bunch, and I always felt the opposite!
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
[deleted]
kulingames@reddit
also pacman doesn't have apt autoremove
ALizarazoTellez@reddit
But there are equivalents. Check the wiki.
VacationAromatic6899@reddit
I guess Arch is more automated than Gentoo, thats why it takes longer, you need to compile the system yourself, you dont need that with arch
Best_Mud_8369@reddit
Gentoo
Humble_Reaction1863@reddit
i did run gento long time for bit more speed but arch is yest as fast endt instal take like 2 to 4 min beter using arch andt distrobox en in there i run gentoo setup like 2 min wen i wont to run apps from gentoo i instal in export the ap tp the arch menu en run it
intelminer@reddit
Obligatory "Gentoo user of X years across Y devices" disclaimer
There's a lot of benefits to Gentoo. Both perceived, factual and imagined.
I've used Gentoo as my daily driver for all my servers and every machine except my "gaming rig" since about 2010. I briefly dabbled in Arch but got burned by its instability at the time.
Gentoo does "fucking take forever to install" as its initial hurdle, being a rolling release sourced based distribution, true. There are ways to mitigate that however. I have a home server in my closet that runs as a "build box" for all my Gentoo machines through the house
The main draws to Gentoo (to me) are
I've personally ported Gentoo to the Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube and Wii, Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360, Sega Dreamcast, Hackberry A10, Raspberry Pi (the original) and the OpenVZ virtualization platform
Gentoo being sourced based makes cramming it onto new or exotic hardware an absolute breeze. If you have packages that need special patches, you can have them compiled in on the fly by adding the patch file in /etc/portage/patches/
Arch is a lot more rigid. They specifically support x86 and x86_64 platforms. ARM (kind of?) is supported by the community meanwhile
Okay, it's not Debian Stable or CentOS. But Gentoo has an extremely rigorous package QA process. I consider all my Gentoo systems to be rock solid and dependable. In conjunction with the above, all my systems run a cronned auto-update and have done so for multiple years on a single install, without developing problems or requiring manual intervention.
If you need a "bleeding edge" or "upstream" build of a package like WINE or Firefox. You can simply add it as a "keyword" in a configuration file. EG x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers ~amd64 for the latest NVIDIA driver releases
Contrasted to Arch, which focuses on bleeding edge as much as possible, regardless of user preferences
USE flags are a great way to configure general system defaults (like "USE=systemd" to enable systemd or USE="-systemd" to force excluding systemd from the entire system) as well as enabling exotic features for specific packages
On my NAS. I do a lot of video encoding to H.265 to save space (while preserving quality) FFmpeg allows doing this using a supported Nvidia GPU to massively accelerate the encoding process (4 1/2 hours on a 4790 for 45 minutes of Blu Ray content reduced to a 3 minute job with a GTX 950)
Enabling this in a system like Ubuntu or Arch would require manually patching FFmpeg and installing it. Or using a prebuilt "AUR" repository version. In Gentoo, I simply enable the nvenc USE flag and the functionality is compiled in for me automatically. With dependency resolution as needed (IE: sourcing the NVIDIA drivers and relevant hardware acceleration parts)
Desperate_Top_4215@reddit
might be a little bit late to this but how did you manage to put gentoo on the xbox 360? and which gen was it? i have an extra xbox 360 "E" laying around and wanna see if running gentoo on it would be possible
Ste_fa@reddit
Why did you decide to port Gentoo to Sega Dreamcast?
intelminer@reddit
A friend of mine at the time sarcastically quipped "I bet you can't put Gentoo on all your game consoles"
A month later, well. They were all running it!
Stefa777@reddit
Lol, cool story
-fno-stack-protector@reddit
depends if you're over or under 30
Iknowmorethanyou35@reddit
Wait so which one is for which age?
-fno-stack-protector@reddit
I guess gentoo was for older people? idk it was 5 years ago
martian_mathers31@reddit
makes no sense thank you
cantanko@reddit
The only thing I will suggest is to not run a source-based distro on a laptop unless you hate your ears. The processor fan will be screaming away during compiles unless you either limit compile threads, limit CPU performance or setup DistCC and run compile tasks elsewhere.
A desktop with decent cooling and a many-core processor makes it effortless. Running it on a mid-range business laptop is perfectly possible but questionable. Unless you manage the heat, battery health can be adversely affected too simply because the battery is being kept fully charged in a hot environment. You won't notice immediately but over time it can have a significant impact. Mine sat on a dock whilst compiling for ages: that was a bad idea :-)