Trying to understand why

[Wistler]

As a guy who loves Ubuntu, I've gotten a little confused with Linux distros. I heard from some guys on a forum that I've belonged to for a while now that Gentoo was really hard to install. Is this true?

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Gentoo is hard for some users to install, while others seem to get through it without too much trouble. In the end, it depends on the user doing the installing.

That said, it's generally not considered to be new user friendly, but there are plenty of new users that have successfully installed it.

[devils casper]

Welcome !

If you are new user then it hard but if you have a little experience and know how to follow instructions, execute commands then its easy. You will get in-depth knowledge during installation process.
Grab Gentoo Handbook and you are good to go.

[meton_magis]

Gentoo is the most involved distro to install properly. It is as close to doing everything yourself without actualy doing everything yourself (I.E. Linux from scratch.) Gentoo requires a good bit of knowledge of linux to install properly, but can also teach you a great deal about how stuff works.

Gentoo requires quite a bit more work and time to get stuff working than most other distros, but the reward is that each of your applications is compiled with exactly what you want in there, and nothing more, making a very lean build, and not requiring a bunch of libraries that you don't actualy use.

While it requires a bit more knowledge, I do have to say that Gentoo has some of the best documentation I've seen. It will pretty much walk you through what you have to do, as long as you understand what you are doing (may require a bit of googling if you don't.)

I'd highly recomend that anyone who is wanting to learn linux, and not just use linux, install gentoo at least once.

[hazel]

The nice thing about installing Gentoo is that you can do it bit by bit over as long a period as you like. There is no single "installation" process for which you need to reserve an afternoon, just a sequence of tasks, each of which is quite easy if you know what you are doing. You don't even need a Gentoo installation disc; you can do it out of an existing Linux distro.

I went off Gentoo because I found that using bleeding edge software and having things breaking on me all the time was just too wearing, but I didn't find either the installation or the use of it difficult.

[oz]

I heard from some guys on a forum that I've belonged to for a while now that Gentoo was really hard to install. Is this true?

The only way you'll ever know for sure if it's hard for you is to try it yourself. Make a backup or drive image of your current system so that it's easily replaced, then dig in and experiment with Gentoo. Doing so can't do anything but help you to learn more about Linux, and who knows... you might really like Gentoo!