[SOLVED] Gentoo or Ubuntu??

[SkittleLinux18]

I am very curious to know what some of the Linux power users here on LFO would say regarding a comparison of the two. Specifically, I would like to know who perfers which: Gentoo or Ubuntu? Secondly, which is the more stable, or "buttoned-down" distro of the two??

Perhaps the answer is "depends on what you're looking for." So maybe keep that in mind when answering. Thanks, people!

[elija]

Gentoo is interesting and I keep promising myself that at some point I will try and find the time to have a go with it. I imagine that Gentoo can be more fully customized from the ground up so you could probably get a leaner meaner install. Whereas with Ubuntu you have to start stripping out the bits you don't want or need which always has the danger of breaking something else in a big way

However; I prefer Ubuntu (alright Xubuntu) for my day to day desktop over any other distro, although I could be persuaded to have a dalliance with Mint (the temptress) . My server is running Centos 5.2 (gui-less) so that I can learn my way round a RHEL server install.

[GNU-Fan]

It is worth noting that these two distributions life on different ends of the spectrum.

On the one end is a distribution you could install for your GrandMa when she wants to know what this Internet thing is about. This is not to say that Ubuntu is not a full fledged GNU/Linux system. It is just that it takes its pride from being very beginners friendly. If you were to look for the Free Software Community's answer to the question: "How do we get a computer on every desktop that just works?", it would contain words that end with "buntu". (Or gNewSense, but this is a different story )


On the other hand, Gentoo has a community that seems to take pride in using a system nobody else has. (I do not, however, want to imply they were snobbish.) These are users that do not mind at all spending substantial--and I mean considerable--efforts and time in building and understanding the system they use. If you meet someone who uses "his own" Gentoo, try to win him as a friend and you are likely to have a competent person to ask computer related questions.
If a Gentooer wants her system to be stable, she builds it this way. If he wants Eye-Candy, he twiddles with it until it looks good in his eyes.

You see, these distros serve completely different types of persons.

I for one use Debian because I feel it is very stable and comes reasonable preconfigured. Whenever the part of me that loves customization wakes up, I fetch the source package for any program in use and change it accordingly. So one could say that my system is partially Gentooish, too.

[oz]

I've successfully installed and used both many times in the past.

Gentoo always turns out to be far too time intensive for my own tastes. Otherwise, I like it quite a bit.

Ubuntu is generally quicker to get up and running, and then maintain, but I've personally always liked plain old Debian a bit better.

In the end, I'm not sure that I favor either over the other, so as you said above, it's really a try it yourself and see what "you" think kind of deal.

[dxqcanada]

Hmm, yes Gentoo user's may tend to be a little snobbish ... though it is probably due to the fact that we need to know more about how Linux works to get the OS up and running.
Gentoo was designed specifically for those Linux User's that want to tune their system. It is very intensive with time (as usually all applications are compiled from source).

Stability is mostly to do with what sources/binaries you use. If you ride on the edge you can install the latest alpha/beta/unstable applications on any Linux distribution ... or even obtain the latest kernel and enable all those Experimental driver options.

Most distributions distribute a precompiled kernel with usually the most stable options enabled.
Gentoo User's tend to customize their kernels (as there is no precompiled kernels distributed).

I appreciate the short time of installation that most distributions offer ... I tend to use those in a Virtual Machine just to play around with. I have found that using Gentoo made my knowledge of Linux more mandatory ... and that is what I wanted out of Linux.

[gruven]

I used Gentoo exclusively for a few years on all of my computers. It is the distro I am most comfortable with, and usually the one I go back to.

That said, it is extremely time intensive because once you start tinkering, you can't stop. If you are one of those people that can just let it be, then it is great. I am not one of those people.

I am testing out plain debian right now, and also arch. I really love gentoo, and will probably fall back to it when I get tired of the other systems not offering enough of a challenge, but it is fun jumping distros.

I do customize all of my own kernels for whatever distro I use because of Gentoo.

Ubuntu package dependencies are far to heavy for my systems and I usually just use plain Debian instead.

It is really a matter of preference. If you want a complete do-it-yourself distro, then go with Gentoo. If you want a distro to do everything for you, then go with Ubuntu. If you want something in the middle, use Debian.

[dxqcanada]

Hmm, after reading my reply ... I think I came across a bit snobbish.

My question to you ... other than curiosity, why did you ask these two questions ?

[Jonathan183]

Gentoo will force you to find out about Linux in order for you to install and run it sucessfully. With Ubuntu learning how it works is optional, not prevented - just optional.

The 'which is best' depends what you want and which features appeal to you. As dxqcanada indicated stability is not a given ... I managed to trash my first Gentoo install within a week (that was attempt number 4 or 5 I think ... first 2 or 3 using the installer and a couple of mis-typing from the handbook). The magic USE flag offers lots of flexibility for experienced Gentoo users like gruven but caused me more than a few problems before sorting out the combination that seems to be working at present for me. If you try Gentoo do a handbook install ...

[bigtomrodney]

I like a lot about Gentoo, specifically when it comes to the knowledge you'll acquire and the potential to really customize your system.

On the other hand I won't personally use it because I've heard about some internal politics and 'power struggles' going on there but more importantly that you get the occassional breakage. Now that was nothing unusual a few years ago but it's really something you shouldn't see these days unless you're running a test release.

I would like to add the disclaimer that I am an Ubuntu user and run it on all of my machines.

[SkittleLinux18]

First off, thanks to everyone for commenting. I really appreciate the insight and experiences that have been shared. Hopefully more will continue to comment.

My question to you ... other than curiosity, why did you ask these two questions ?

Well, as many know, I had a huge system failure last month with PCLinuxOS that caused some data loss and broke all my servers (temporarily, of course). As soon as it happened, all I could think was, Give me Kubuntu! See, I had been using PCLOS because it was my first taste/experience/love with Linux back in June of 2007. So I didn't want to part with it. However, when the crash happened, everything I read and heard about "choosing a Distro because of it's support and stability" came back to haunt me. Like SierraDump was explaining to me, some Distros are great, but just not as "buttoned down" (as he referred to it) as others. So I resorted to Kubuntu for the quick fix and have since done a lot of thinking about what I can do to make a Distro more stable. This of course led me to researching Gentoo a little. I have always known that is one of the, if not the, most complicated distros out there.
I consider myself a pretty advanced Linux user. I really am able to fix a lot of problems on my own now without having to harass you wonderful folks on here Regardless, I am not a poweruser of Linux by any means. So I wanted to ask others what they thought. See if it was possible to learn enough about Linux and Gentoo to make it the most stable distro for my system specifically via a custom install/compile. Does that answer your question??

The 'which is best' depends what you want and which features appeal to you. As dxqcanada indicated stability is not a given ... I managed to trash my first Gentoo install within a week (that was attempt number 4 or 5 I think ... first 2 or 3 using the installer and a couple of mis-typing from the handbook). The magic USE flag offers lots of flexibility for experienced Gentoo users like gruven but caused me more than a few problems before sorting out the combination that seems to be working at present for me. If you try Gentoo do a handbook install ...

Hey Jonathan183, it's good to hear from you again! Hope things are well with you. Thanks for the heads up. You confirmed something to me that I had already thought of doing if I decided to undertake the challenge of Gentoo: which would be to create a small partition on my computer for the purpose of installing and testing Gentoo. So when I crash the system 50 times, and flood LFO with posts , I still have my working Kubuntu install on the larger partition of my hard drive.

I would like to add the disclaimer that I am an Ubuntu user and run it on all of my machines.

Yeah, I mean I have been really happy with Kubuntu, minus the couple bugs I've run into and have learned are unfixable without a full distro upgrade (which I don't want to do because the next step up is KDE4), or a clean reinstall of the current distro (which thankfully hasn't become necessary yet).