 Visitor Reviews |
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Reader supplied reviews for Exherbo
Average rating
5.2 from 6 review(s)
Version: current
Rating: 5
Date: 2026-05-02
Country: Germany
Votes: 2
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I'm giving this distribution a rating of 5, just for the package manager. In my opinion it's even more superior than Portage (Gentoo). But the distribution or more like the documentation of this distro is bad! I tried several times to install Exherbo but without success.
I would call myself an advanced Linux user, I've installed and managed distributions like Arch (the Arch way), Slackware or Gentoo, just to name a few. It's one thing to configure and build your own kernel, I've done that on CRUX, but I couldn't get Exherbo to boot, absolutely no luck with systemd-boot. With GRUB it booted but it got stuck at some point. I don't know if that is my fault or not since I could get CRUX to boot on the same system, but as I said, the documentation lacks a lot.
It also seems that some steps are in the wrong order cause after installing an init system (systemd) you are supposed to update the world set but it breaks with tons of error messages. If you first update the system and then install systemd, it works like a charm.
I really wanted to give this distribution a chance but I gave up after like 6 - 7 times. Too bad cause in theory this distribution really sounds promising! Please do your homework and give us a better documentation and I would reconsider trying it again.
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Version: current
Rating: 3
Date: 2025-12-03
Votes: 1
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“It’s impossible to install! Every time I try to install it, various problems occur. The installation guide from their site seems to be wrong. When comes the time for GRUB to install, whether in BIOS or EFI mode, the installation fails. And if you try to install dracut (which isn’t included!), it throws errors and causes package conflicts. There’s no documentation at all, and the filesystem layout is different from Gentoo’s. You cannot find how to resolve the issues. Where is, for example, the "package.use" file, the "make.conf", etc...? It’s as if the developers of this distribution don’t want any user to install it and are keeping it exclusively for themselves.
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Version: current
Rating: 4
Date: 2023-10-27
Votes: 2
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Compared to Gentoo, it is too bloated in many ways.
I think CAVE is superior to Portage, but I have no other reason to choose it. I have been using this system for a few days now and I still don't understand it.
I have read that a package management system called Paludis can be implemented in Gentoo, so if you are using Gentoo, you might want to try that before trying Exherbo.
I am going to use it for a while and see how it goes.
By the way, don't forget that I don't recommend this OS because it has a lot of troublesome errors such as UNWRITTEN etc.
So far, I give it a 4 out of 10.
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Version: current
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-07-30
Votes: 2
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in comparation to gentoo it is too bloated
if one choose minimal profile on gentoo to build system, there will be flags available for almost any option in source supported by original maintainer, gentoo devs make little changes to fit source into portage system.
While on exherbo, almost half options (use flags) will be hard enabled in source.
so, user have more freedom and configuration on gentoo than on exherbo. If somebodie doesnt like exherbo source, for sure he can make his repository and than configure packagesm but its not always easy to compile them later and install with cave.
exherbo is for users who doesnt mind to have bloated system for year or two with great learning curve until they really learn how to do it well.
Cave is better tha portage, but thats it. distribution is worst, repositories are bloated with hard enabled supports in source...
i give it 5/10
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Version: current
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-05-17
Votes: 14
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All in all: A solid source-based distribution with better infrastructure than (but not as much support or documentation as) Gentoo. Not well-suited to non-technical users, but technical ones will appreciate its configurability and repo federation. It's been my daily driver for five years.
I tend to judge a distro on its package management, since that's what all of them try to do. In that sense, Paludis strives to be "a better Portage"--its conceptual models are cleaner, the vocabulary was chosen more sensibly ("options" instead of "USE flags"), likely in retrospect. As a result, I've found its errors to generally be more comprehensible than Portage's at a first glance, even though it's documentation is much poorer (and nonexistent in some cases). There are many tips and tricks to using it capably, but that's beyond the scope of this review, unfortunately.
The project is tiny, and it cedes that other users need to help with packaging. To that end, there are numerous "unofficial" repositories with packages, and they're a first-class feature (unlike Gentoo's afterthought of "overlays"). If you're using something esoteric, chances are you might have to package as such yourself--but Paludis can also import "built" root images for you, which is especially handy for proprietary software.
Aside from that, some LFS knowledge would be handy, as this distro is certainly not turnkey. But it's one of a few that can support my whimsy (like non-systemd) and not _be_ LFS. If you have a fairly-performant computer and a few days to kill, try it.
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Version: current
Rating: 5
Date: 2021-02-26
Votes: 0
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Attempted to install Exherbo, but for some reason, most of the compilations failed because the repository was "unavailable", even after syncing and checking all the config files. I can't wrap my head around these errors, and I've installed CRUX Linux (which, btw, is basically Gentoo with a local ports system and a different codebase/package manager). This wasn't originally going to be a problem until I was supposed to rebuild @world to install systemd (the default init system for some reason), something I wasn't able to do because of some errors involving Git. rebooting, systemD appeared to work properly, until it froze at a certain point every time. This is probably just me (a lowly Slackware/Arch user) not knowing what I'm supposed to do, but If I can't wrap my head around the package management (the syntax is friggin terrible, -x is the least obvious install flag in the history of install commands), and be able to install other source distributions like CRUX, then what the heck is this?
even disregarding this, I'll continue. When paludis/cave did work, it worked like a dream. that alone earns this distro 5 points. but, if basically two-thirds of all the packages won't install because of incomprehensible errors, and this leads me to be unable to install the distribution, then it's safe to say I can't use this. Probably just me being stupid and not knowing how a "real distribution" works, but I couldn't find these errors in any of the documentation (or at least where it was obvious). 5/10 for being unusable. I'll be sticking with CRUX and prt-utils.
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Latest Reviews
Project: Exherbo
Version: current
Rating: 5
Date: 2026-05-02
Votes: 2
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I'm giving this distribution a rating of 5, just for the package manager. In my opinion it's even more superior than Portage (Gentoo). But the distribution or more like the documentation of this distro is bad! I tried several times to install Exherbo but without success.
I would call myself an advanced Linux user, I've installed and managed distributions like Arch (the Arch way), Slackware or Gentoo, just to name a few. It's one thing to configure and build your own kernel, I've done that on CRUX, but I couldn't get Exherbo to boot, absolutely no luck with systemd-boot. With GRUB it booted but it got stuck at some point. I don't know if that is my fault or not since I could get CRUX to boot on the same system, but as I said, the documentation lacks a lot.
It also seems that some steps are in the wrong order cause after installing an init system (systemd) you are supposed to update the world set but it breaks with tons of error messages. If you first update the system and then install systemd, it works like a charm.
I really wanted to give this distribution a chance but I gave up after like 6 - 7 times. Too bad cause in theory this distribution really sounds promising! Please do your homework and give us a better documentation and I would reconsider trying it again.
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Project: Exherbo
Version: current
Rating: 3
Date: 2025-12-03
Votes: 1
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“It’s impossible to install! Every time I try to install it, various problems occur. The installation guide from their site seems to be wrong. When comes the time for GRUB to install, whether in BIOS or EFI mode, the installation fails. And if you try to install dracut (which isn’t included!), it throws errors and causes package conflicts. There’s no documentation at all, and the filesystem layout is different from Gentoo’s. You cannot find how to resolve the issues. Where is, for example, the "package.use" file, the "make.conf", etc...? It’s as if the developers of this distribution don’t want any user to install it and are keeping it exclusively for themselves.
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Project: Exherbo
Version: current
Rating: 4
Date: 2023-10-27
Votes: 2
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Compared to Gentoo, it is too bloated in many ways.
I think CAVE is superior to Portage, but I have no other reason to choose it. I have been using this system for a few days now and I still don't understand it.
I have read that a package management system called Paludis can be implemented in Gentoo, so if you are using Gentoo, you might want to try that before trying Exherbo.
I am going to use it for a while and see how it goes.
By the way, don't forget that I don't recommend this OS because it has a lot of troublesome errors such as UNWRITTEN etc.
So far, I give it a 4 out of 10.
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Project: Exherbo
Version: current
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-07-30
Votes: 2
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in comparation to gentoo it is too bloated
if one choose minimal profile on gentoo to build system, there will be flags available for almost any option in source supported by original maintainer, gentoo devs make little changes to fit source into portage system.
While on exherbo, almost half options (use flags) will be hard enabled in source.
so, user have more freedom and configuration on gentoo than on exherbo. If somebodie doesnt like exherbo source, for sure he can make his repository and than configure packagesm but its not always easy to compile them later and install with cave.
exherbo is for users who doesnt mind to have bloated system for year or two with great learning curve until they really learn how to do it well.
Cave is better tha portage, but thats it. distribution is worst, repositories are bloated with hard enabled supports in source...
i give it 5/10
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Project: Exherbo
Version: current
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-05-17
Votes: 14
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All in all: A solid source-based distribution with better infrastructure than (but not as much support or documentation as) Gentoo. Not well-suited to non-technical users, but technical ones will appreciate its configurability and repo federation. It's been my daily driver for five years.
I tend to judge a distro on its package management, since that's what all of them try to do. In that sense, Paludis strives to be "a better Portage"--its conceptual models are cleaner, the vocabulary was chosen more sensibly ("options" instead of "USE flags"), likely in retrospect. As a result, I've found its errors to generally be more comprehensible than Portage's at a first glance, even though it's documentation is much poorer (and nonexistent in some cases). There are many tips and tricks to using it capably, but that's beyond the scope of this review, unfortunately.
The project is tiny, and it cedes that other users need to help with packaging. To that end, there are numerous "unofficial" repositories with packages, and they're a first-class feature (unlike Gentoo's afterthought of "overlays"). If you're using something esoteric, chances are you might have to package as such yourself--but Paludis can also import "built" root images for you, which is especially handy for proprietary software.
Aside from that, some LFS knowledge would be handy, as this distro is certainly not turnkey. But it's one of a few that can support my whimsy (like non-systemd) and not _be_ LFS. If you have a fairly-performant computer and a few days to kill, try it.
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Project: Exherbo
Version: current
Rating: 5
Date: 2021-02-26
Votes: 0
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Attempted to install Exherbo, but for some reason, most of the compilations failed because the repository was "unavailable", even after syncing and checking all the config files. I can't wrap my head around these errors, and I've installed CRUX Linux (which, btw, is basically Gentoo with a local ports system and a different codebase/package manager). This wasn't originally going to be a problem until I was supposed to rebuild @world to install systemd (the default init system for some reason), something I wasn't able to do because of some errors involving Git. rebooting, systemD appeared to work properly, until it froze at a certain point every time. This is probably just me (a lowly Slackware/Arch user) not knowing what I'm supposed to do, but If I can't wrap my head around the package management (the syntax is friggin terrible, -x is the least obvious install flag in the history of install commands), and be able to install other source distributions like CRUX, then what the heck is this?
even disregarding this, I'll continue. When paludis/cave did work, it worked like a dream. that alone earns this distro 5 points. but, if basically two-thirds of all the packages won't install because of incomprehensible errors, and this leads me to be unable to install the distribution, then it's safe to say I can't use this. Probably just me being stupid and not knowing how a "real distribution" works, but I couldn't find these errors in any of the documentation (or at least where it was obvious). 5/10 for being unusable. I'll be sticking with CRUX and prt-utils.
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