God! This is the fourth time I've attempted to write this! What's happening? I keep being sent back to my usrCP screen. Well, here goes again...
I wanted to say that I've deleted my Archlinux partition! Then I went onto suggest that you should all be gasping in surprise because I was saying that Archlinux was the best thing since disposable nappies! After that, I said that Archlinux continued to satisfy me in every respect and that I actually found it easier than Debian to look after. I said that whereas with Debian you have to reboot to a blank screen and a flashing cursor after a kernel update, Archlinux looks after the graphics card all by itself. I was also going to say that Archlinux is the only distro that I've used that has made installing Java as easy as it should be. I didn't get to say that though because I apparently kept my finger on the shift key too long which appears to have the effect of sending me to userCP - and forcing me to write my message again. This one seems to be working so far. I'll submit it quick...
Right, now I won't have to start from the beginning again! So, why have I un-installed what has, up to now, been my favourite distro? Well, the answer is that I really wanted to try Gentoo. That way I could make a real comparison rather than just asking other people's opinion. Besides, I felt that my Linux experience had a gaping big hole in it without having at least tried Gentoo. So I picked up some courage and had a go. If I don't like it, I'll try something else. At the end of the day, if Archlinux is still my preferred OS, I'll wipe out my Debian partition and stay with it...at least until my next distro-hopping rampage!
So what do I think of Gentoo thus far, and how does it compare with Archlinux? Well, difficult to say just yet, as I've only just finished installing it. Like Archlinux it is has excellent documentation - in fact, it's the only distro that I've tried so far that has better documentation than Archlinux (I have to say that Debian is lousy for this). However, as for the install there is a BIG difference: Gentoo is much, much longer and more difficult! I started yesterday lunchtime, and finished at midnight! Admittedly, I did stop several times to do household chores and the like, and I also make quite a few mistakes, but nevertheless the Archlinux install was much faster and more straightforward: at the end of installing Gentoo I quite literally couldn't get to sleep as I'd managed to get cramp in my shoulder and it was very, very painful indeed! However, I'll say one very positive thing about the Gentoo install: once you've completed a few steps you can actually stop, turn off your computer, and then start again from where you left off! Cool, eh? (But I didn't do that: I'm not that sort of guy! When I start something, I must finish it! Patience is not a virtue of mine.) However, this is a special install (there are about a zillion different ways of installing Gentoo) done from the
system rescue CD You also have full internet, and all the various other tools you'd expect to find on a rescue CD. That's all I can compare so far. In the meantime...guess how I'm going to be spending my free time in the next few days!
). I was using Ubuntu back then, but I certainly don't believe that only newbies use Ubuntu - I know some very clued up Linux users who do so, and some of them are to be found right here on this forum!
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