Gentoo Linux has overlays. You can compile packages from third party overlays.
Gentoo overlays are better designed than debian/ubuntu PPA(personal package archive)s and AUR(arch user repository).
Gentoo Linux is simpler than nix and guix unless you need reproducibility. Gentoo Linux doesn't require you to learn nix langauge or guile scheme. You don't need reproducibility that comes with nix or guix on desktop computers. I just manage dot files in my git repository without any infrastructure-as-code tool. For servers, nix or guix can help.
A friend and I wanted to play around with Linux, so we installed Mandrake[1] Linux on a school PC. We didn't know what we were doing, and the GUI (I think it was KDE3?) abstracted too much. It was also very unstable.
I don't remember how I got to know about Gentoo, but I then proceeded to install and reinstall Gentoo on my home PC (Athlon 64) about 20 times, and this was when you had to start from stage1, so you had to do a full bootstrap, kernel, and system compile; no binaries and no shortcuts. The scrolling gcc output on my screen was the coolest thing ever.
The Gentoo handbook was amazing. It taught you exactly how Linux works and how to install every component of the system.
After a while, I began contributing to the distro and even became a developer for a few months but had to quit due to real life.
I don't follow Gentoo today, but if it's still valuable as a tool to learn Linux, I can highly recommend it.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandriva_Linux
Regarding Mandriva/Mandrake, I'm remembering that as having the cleanest /etc with just the relevant information in its config files, generated by the installer. And not copy/pasted crap like it was common on Debian, then. PC-LinuxOS took that approach, too. But RPM, nay!
As to learning effect, I'm doubtful.
https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ would be more appropriate for the foundations.
With Gentoo, you're just learning their abstractions, as flexible as they may be.
Which one could nowadays do in any virtual machine, as time and motivation permits.
Because suspendable on demand. Continue later.
Then trying that thing on real iron, and maybe replacing the virtualization host with it, when it passed the smoke test :-)
Which applies to both, LFS & Gentoo.
The upside is deciding exactly which packets you want and which versions, and whenever you want to customize( or fix) a specific thing it's trivial.
Ebuild offers a lot of functions and "magic" which looks nice in theory but actually means you will be lost if you don't write them often. Arch pkgbuild look like a shell script. Adding a random patch to an existing package is extremely easy.
I enjoyed using Gentoo and I eventually set up distcc on a separate computer to help compiling.
I forget exactly when, but I switched to Arch Linux and after a failed upgrade there, switched again to Fedora.
I'm thinking of finally upgrading my components as Sandy Bridge is not cutting it in all tasks any more. Told my Gentoo-loving friend that I wouldn't be installing Gentoo again. That's only because I'm planning on just using this current installation with fresh recompilations!
What will you use instead?
Why are Overlays better than AUR?
Everyone is naturally free to use whatever they feel like, some people never open the hood on their cars, while others might even melt bolts to fix their oldtimers themselves.
A good thing about proprietary OS is that, they are responsible if their repos are infected.
Are packages carefully reviewed by gentoo?
No, you're confusing exclusivity. https://launchpad.net/debian/+ppas
What I mean is that Debian does not support adding PPA by default island I frankly don't hear of many Debian users doing that. Flatpak/-hub is much more common.
First, somewhat sarcastically, I can give you that support right here. "echo ... | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/...". Go forth and prosper.
Now, more seriously/importantly, this is for distributing user-supplied software. The point I was originally making is that anyone can leverage this, it's not representative of the Distribution. AUR, PPA, COPR (for your RHEL derivative of choice), OBS, whatever. The malware is the responsibility of the user who published it, not the Distribution maintainers.
Aside: I'm deliberately trying use 'distribution' as a proper noun/capitalize where appropriate... in terms of the composite of software we know as Debian or Ubuntu, not an individual release like the 'software-properties-common' package or malware: what started this thread.
Back on topic: this is firmly down the path of customization. The fact that you don't get 'add-apt-repository' for free is, again, irrelevant. PPAs will distribute (heh) Deb packages for either Distribution.
If we're working off anecdotes, I hear about far more Sources [repo] files being made on Debian than Flatpak installations. Now what do we do.
The 'default' you're talking about is a CLI that simplifies two steps, one of which is optional [signature]. It can be done with a shell/coreutils or whatever equivalent. Again, I showed my work.
Anyway, let's toss Flatpak, then. Debian only offers it, not by default. Just like it only offers the ability to write to '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/'.
I'm done going back/forth on this, we're so far off the point. Use the distribution you want, be mindful of the software you install. Regardless of who wrote/built the manifests or hosted the artifacts.
Bagging on Arch for the AUR makes as much sense as <the public packaging service> for <your favorite distribution>. I already named several, it's all user-generated content. In absolutely no way does it represent the actual product/distribution. The users publishing and consuming carry the responsibility.
You don't need to customize it, but you can still get packages from third party overlays.
The customizability is available when you need it or want it.
Learning to use gentoo's basic functionality doesn't cost a lot of time, and I recommend utilizing only the basic functionality in most cases.
Just stick to the basics, and you will be fine.
Luckily Arch/CachyOS users don't have to worry about this as CachyOS offers optimised packages for modern CPUs. Until Gentoo offers an equivalent - without manual compiling needed - I won't consider it.
Didn’t believe it until I saw it.
I'd say it's more akin to learning vim, where there's a fairly steep learning curve at the outset, with huge rewards down the line.
Yes, initial install can take a while. Yes, system updates take longer when built than from binaries - but modern hardware makes that a fairly trivial difference. Most people who have a problem with Gentoo either only used it decades ago when build time were a lot longer, or because they heard it takes long, which is way more common than the former.
You need two sets of the "same" hardware, though. Then you get a build server with -march native
try to get other people to value ur time...
It's always been my goto if I want absolute maximum rice or feeling of control.
The Gentoo handbook is also amazing, especially the pages going over the nitty gritty details.
Personally though I'm more interested in nixos (if I want to roll my own) these days for it's immutable features.
Patching libraries is easier than any other distro. Just throw the patch in
...run one emerge command, and your entire system is now linked to the patched library. For example one of my machines has: ...which is a backport to fix a build error with avx512 enabled.Same for debugging and cflags, I simply have:
...and then rebuilding any package with debug cflags is one vim+emerge away:I was taking a look at their documentation and it seems quite comprehensive. Though I was wondering if there are any books or tutorials that the Gentoo community also values.
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:Main_Page
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Main_Page
I only needed gentoo wiki and gentoo handbook for everything from the begining. You can read arch wiki for more instructions.
other then that id recommend to look into (which will all be in the handbook): emerge, eselect, equery, eix (packages/tools related to package mgr)
> Gentoo overlays are better designed than debian/ubuntu PPA(personal package archive)s and AUR(arch user repository).
...because from what the Gentoo wiki states, an overlay is a repository of packages from which Portage will automatically install packages. That is a clear contrast to the AUR from which you manually get a package so you have the chance to inspect it without Pacman automatically going and installing it. For Arch a closer equivalent would be unofficial user repositories.
For me, I prefer Debian. No ad crap like Ubuntu, decent userbase with several popular security distros (Parrot, Kali) based on it, so lots of eyeballs. And fairly usable, especially if you switch over to XFCE so you're not wasting resources on flashy graphics.
Been in the situation to chose a while ago, been wary of having to compile all that crap, because that's what USE-flags are for :-) (Wenn schon, denn schon! (Meaning something like 'going all in' in german)) Thought about NetBSD, and FreeBSD too, but nah, because drivers. Knew Arch. It's lean, or can be, but not that optimized. Came across CachyOS.
Gave it a try. Feeling very comfy with it at speed. Enables real "Freude am Fahrvergnügen/Spaß am Gerät" without hassle. Not seeing the need to change.
I disagree. My desktop, laptop and servers all share one terminal config and gets updated from a git repo. All the other distros are too much work to have a worse, janky symlink config that self-destructs on an iffy update.