Why I choose Gentoo
Gentoo is a source based distribution. Every piece of software is compiled on your own computer. While this can take a long time, and requires a generally fast PC to do it without really bothering you, source based distributions do have major advantages.
Some packages provide compile time options to include functions/features or not, depending on the dependencies you have installed. Like a QT frontend instead of a GTK one. In Gentoo you can choose which you want, unlike binary distributions, where you get a specified futureset. If you don’t like it, you can compile your own outside of the package manager. Which is not desired.
Debian and Ubuntu, have different versions of their distributions. These are testing grounds for newer packages. If you run an older version distribution, and want a package from the newer one, this is most of the time impossible as dependencies do not match. Source distributions allow for better mixture of stable packages and experimental packages as they are compiled against the current dependencies, if a newer one is required it’ll try to pull it in. Binary distros are at a disadvantage here.
Now the Ubuntu fans will scream that they can do this and that. They are stuck to one of the Ubuntu flavors, and what they think is right. Source distributions give you more power over your own system at the expense of longer installation time, which for me is no problem.
In the end it’s all about how you use your system. If you’ve got lots of time, gentoo is indeed a nice distro to play with (although I think that LFS gives you more freedom, but hey, it’ll also cost a lot more time). Otoh, the primary reason I use Ubuntu on the desktop is because I need a unix-like system that just works. Fortunately, the featureset that Ubuntu deliveres is just the featureset I need, so that saves me even more time.
Hmm I noticed a small contradiction in this post compared to this one.
In this post one you stated: Source distributions give you more power over your own system at the expense of longer installation time, which for me is no problem.
And in the second one you said: “You have to recompile php entirely to add a feature. Besides the time it takes to compile…”. Almost every package must be recompiled on Gentoo after it is getting updated, so if you are complaining about PHP that it takes time to recompile everytime you update it/add a module to it. I didn’t quite understood why you want a system where every package has to be recompiled every time…?
Or maybe I’ve missed something…?
my rant about PHP was to point out flaws, PHP, unlike python for example, does NOT support a easy modular approach to extend the language. In PHP you have no choice.
It is true that in Gentoo this doesn’t really matter as the whole package (when there is an update) gets recompiled. BUT this could have been a smaller recompile when there were different modules for it (just like python).
Just to make it clear; when there is an update for a package, only that package gets compiled. (not strictly recompiled, as its a new version, and not the same)
Hey Guys,
Well, I think you know my old joke ‘gentoo is bad for the environment’ :)
Anyway, I think I understand why someone would choose to use a source-based compilation system. During my FreeBSD desktop adventures I had the choice of using the so-called ‘ports’(source) or ‘packages’(binary). The ports were of course much newer and some specific software was just not available in the package repo.
My lazy and unorganized nature (I cannot even maintain my homedir) is the main cause for becoming a binary package user. Also, one very strong argument I think is software development. When working in a team on a piece of software you want the environment to be the same (at my current company we even use the same VM-disk). More importantly you want your test/development/staging/production environments to be the same, of course this can also be accomplished using source-based packaging, but there are no compelling arguments for companies to do so.
Anyway: PHP is evil like eval and let’s just switch to Darwin ;]
dodo
P.S. AAAHRGH, that anti-spam thing is a freakin pain! and it erases my form :(