Gentoo Linux, anyone here tried it before? Please share here

[caffeine]

Yes. Gentoo is built from source. You install it by compiling it. All packages are compiled from source. (Well, openoffice and mozilla are available in binary form due to long compilation times.) Check the homepage www.gentoo.org.

[danbo]

i cant be bothered, i think i'll get a different distro, compiling will be too much hassle

[MezzUp]

compiling isn't hard at all, to install KDE(for example) you just type "emerge kde" and gnome downloads the source and compiles all the app you need to run KDE (X,KDE itself and stuff.....)

[l_bonkers]

yes, the compiling takes a long time but the speed and returned results are WAY worth it. It's easy to start compiling. It's not as easy as Mandrake but it's pretty easy. It's not like doing config, make, make install, and all that stuff. It's just "emerge package-name"...That's it.

[genlee]

If you hate to wait and have access to some more linux boxes, install distcc and use that. The initial setup can take a little while but after you have everything finished, updates arn't nearly as bad.

[danbo]

Is the setup like a normal setup or do i have to install everything myself? Also can i do partitioning for my dual boot during setup like i normally do?

[genlee]

You install everything yourself. Say you want to use gnome, emerge gnome and that is it. Its very simple to setup your box and you get to customize it how you want it.

[skyfolly]

Sounds very attractive indeed, but as I am Chinese, I always wonder if other distros have better Chinese support other than Redhat. All the interfaces in Redhat have good Chinese coverage, eg, Gnome and KDE are well coded in Chinese.

I also wonder how long does it take to install a-full-package Gentoo which include everything? Is it really a better distro after comparing to Redhat, Mandrake or even Debian?