Help to choose distrubution

[MobyDick]

Hi!

I'm new to Gentoo and wants to download the OS. But I found out that Gentoo has a lot of different distrubutions (alpha, x86, amd64, and so on...).

What are the differences between them?

And I found this page to download from:
http://mirror.gentoo.se/releases/

If I choose for example 'alpha', then I can choose between 'Installcd' and 'Packagecd'. What are the differences between them?

//MobyDick

[budman7]

The installcd means you can install from it.
The packagecd, has packages that you can install to your system.

The different distributions that you mentioned are for different types of computers.

What kind of computer do you have?

[sxeraverx]

alpha, x86, amd64, ppc, etc. correspond to your processor. If you have an Intel or AMD 32-bit processor, choos x86 or i686 (preferably i686), if you have a Pentium 4, choose pentium4, if you have a mac, choose ppc, if you have a 64-bit AMD processor, choose amd64, and so on and so forth. I'd recommend just going with the installcd, because I've never been fond of installing packages from CD.

[Cabhan]

From my understanding, you only want the PackageCD if you are running a Stage3 installation with no Internet.

If you have Internet, definitely not the PackageCD, as you can just emerge whatever you want.

The PackageCD basically contains a bunch of prebuilt packages, which kinda defeats the point of a Stage1 install.


The Install CD, on the other hand, is basically a LiveCD that gives you the console for installing.

[MobyDick]

Thanks a lot for your answers.
Now I know