I recommend it for daily drive. Updating is usually fast like 15 minutes. Sometimes there are huge updates like gcc, webkit-gtk, llvm, QtWebEngine, so you can update before go to bed. There is also life beyond computers. The Gnome memory footprint is lower than any other distro I used. Gentoo can compile binaries to your processor. I have Intel and AMD hardware, there is no restriction.
For beginners:
- strict follow the handbook, dont need youtuber installation guide, dont need chatgpt guidance;
- select plasma or gnome profile, there is no need for special use flags, strict with MAKEOPTS, VIDEO_DRIVER and INPUTS;
- OpenRC is easier for installing
- nvidia users: keep in mind, there is nvidia systemd units. nvidia drivers has better compatibility with systemd;
- first boot: install gentoo-kernel or gentoo-kernel-bin. One is from source, the other is the binary.
I am healed from distro hopping vicious. Thank you Gentoo Anonimous.
TLDR; Good distro, not as hard as people make it look like, totally recommend it
this distro is a rabbit hole in and of itself, portage is a very unique concept executed so correctly and the distro is so modular and i know EXACTLY whats happening in my computer everytime i install a package, turn it on and do stuff on my computer.
this distro while definitely not for beginners or the faint of heart is really good, the modularity of it is about as modular as it gets, you know what you put in your computer to minimize bloat.
while being dreaded as this "final boss" of linux and that its "the hardest distro in existence" is really just people who never used it and its really something worth getting into, this distro is also very known so guides aren't that hard to come by but this distro is really about as hard to install as arch, but the documentation is also much better than arch, but i won't yap too much, at the end of the day gentoo is a truly good distro that is worth the time you can sink into it
Gentoo Linux is a truly unique and for the most part, underrated Linux distro.
Its main target is definitely those who know what they are doing, and or want fine control over their system. Despite this, it has an incredibly written documentation that holds your hand through many stages that could otherwise be a major headache. Its documentation alone is underrated too for this very reason. You WILL learn lots about Linux through the usage of Gentoo.
As for drawbacks, there’s a couple things you should keep in mind. Gentoo compiles packages on your machine rather than downloading precompiled binaries. This means downloads may take longer, and having medium to high end specs will definitely be useful on your Gentoo journey. Some software may take a fairly large amount of time to compile, so in cases like this you can look into using Gentoo’s pre compiled versions (often ending in -bin) to keep things fast at the cost of a reduced customisation.
The Gentoo community is also one of the nicest and most helpful communities I’ve seen in a distro. Everyone will welcome you with open arms and help you with everything big or small. They even have a good sense of humour.
At the beginning, Gentoo will guide you what to do. Once familiar, you’ll be guiding Gentoo what to do. :)
The Gentoo community is supportive and knowledgeable, offering extensive documentation through the Gentoo Handbook and active forums. Portage, the heart of Gentoo, offers unparalleled flexibility and customization. Want a minimal installation? Nothing easier.
The power of Portage shines in its dependency management. It resolves complex package dependencies with ease, ensuring a smooth and trouble-free installation process. The rolling release model keeps your system updated with the latest software. I find Gentoo much more user friendly than Ubuntu.
Everything about this OS is amazing, the power you have to do what you want, the independence you have because you control the software, the freedom to control your system at it's max potential. Anything you want out of an OS you can make possible with Gentoo. The fact that to download a package it downloads the source code then compiles it, the OS assuming you're in control of everything, the power of it being able to run on anything. The privacy, the security, the compatibility. The speed, and the efficiency. You are in control.
I've had plenty of time to think about what I like and dislike about Gentoo, so I decided that a 'pros and cons' style list would be the best way to see why I chose Gentoo as a daily-driver.
PROS:
- Fast binaries: When you compile from source with specific use flags (-march=native, -O3/-O2, etc.) the compiler is fully allowed to use special assembly instructions that can greatly improve the performance of binaries. Many have said in the past that Gentoo's performance isn't the main selling-point anymore, but as compilers become more and more advanced with processor-intrinsic assembly, I find that difficult to fully agree with. The performance you get with native compilation is unmatched, and fantastic if you're managing a large system/database with a lot of data to sift through.
- Incredible customization: A large part of Gentoo is its customization process. Ideally, you customize your kernel as well, taking away the functionality you don't need. This greatly limits overhead at the lowest level. Some people also like that it doesn't force you into using Systemd like Arch, although that is almost entirely opinion-based. Here's a list of things that are entirely your choice: Bootloader, init system, filesystem, partition-sizing, kernel (builtins and modules, along with the type of kernel). I genuinely could go on, but this section is already disproportionately long.
- Amazing package manager: Aside from the basics that have already been stated, Portage is very intuitive with the way it handles packages. If you don't explicitly tell it to use bleeding-edge packages, it is ridiculously safe. There are many, many options to change its functionality, and default options can be specified easily in the `make.conf` file. There are also community-contributed repositories, similar to the AUR.
- USE flags: Don't have or want bluetooth? Disable it. Do you use Wayland? Disable Xorg windowing for packages that don't need it. This goes for almost anything on your system and can be enabled/disabled globally or per-package. There are many, many USE flags. You don't have to pay for what you don't eat!
CONS:
- Slowww downloads: If you're constantly downloading software, Gentoo struggles. As everything is built from source, larger projects like Firefox can take about an hour to fully compile (although recently, in an effort to entirely remove this issue, Portage also allows you to download binary packages for select packages). I would personally agree that Arch is more user-friendly when it comes to mass package installation.
- Requires technical knowledge: You're gonna have to get close to the machine if you want to use Gentoo. The installation process will take several hours at the minimum and is a very involved process.
- Here be dragons: There won't be a lot of help if you break your system. Being arrogant with use flags (-Ofast, -ffast-math) can very easily produce binaries that simply do not work. Additionally, very few online tutorials will show Gentoo-specific instructions. Gentoo is absolutely a trial-by-fire, and you will be forced into learning many things alone.
TL;DR -- Gentoo is for highly advanced users who want an extremely optimized system tailored to their specific needs.
I've used Gentoo on and off for decades now, not in any coding or tech capacity, not even for work. I'm just your average older computer user with a love of Linux and a willingness to learn if there's a payoff. I use my computer for everyday things mainly - web browsing with Firefox (though I'll admit to using the Mozilla binary rather than compiling it) and lots of media consumption, including managing a gigantic music collection comprising 1.2TB and well over 200,000 files. Gentoo handles it all with fewer issues than most other distros. Over the years I've managed to bork my install a few times, mainly through neglect, but now I know more, stick with the stable branch and update regularly. It works if you care for it. It just needs more attention than most.
Yes, the install/update process is much more involved than most distros, and it's easy to make mistakes. But the documentation is pretty great overall, if a little too detailed at times perhaps, and not always in a straight line. As with Arch, you need to know what you want ahead of time, then it's just a matter of putting the puzzle together. It'll take longer with Gentoo of course, because compiling everything takes time. There are ways to mitigate that however - though it's gonna take what it takes at first. I use the binary kernel in addition to Firefox, but aside from that, my Plasma setup and everything else is compiled, tuned to my hardware, which is actually noticeable. I timed Strawberry chugging through my Music partition when added on various distros and Gentoo won the race handily. Plasma 5 sits at around 390MB initial RAM use according to ksysguard (still available!), and everything just feels a bit more snappy.
I know Gentoo doesn't get much attention these days, and it certainly isn't for everyone, but if you're looking to have even more fine-grained control over your system than most Linux already gives you, or if you want to squeeze the best performance out of your particular hardware it may be worth taking the plunge. Just be aware that there is work involved. If you can't update regularly, refuse to read notifications or do research, etc. it probably ain't for you. But if you're willing to learn and can follow instructions, you could soon be dazzled by walls of text fly by as gcc compiles itself. That one takes a while...
Installation is amazingly easy if you follow the wiki. In fact, compilation takes a long time, and despite choosing to use binary packages fully if possible, I installed the system in two evenings.
I encourage all intermediate Linux users to give it a try. If you know how to install the arch, void etc.. and know a little bit about the GNU/Linux structure it is not difficult.
Gentoo instead allows you a lot of control over the system, deciding how old packages you want to have. It is easy to compile the kernel thanks to genkernel tool. USE flags allow you to influence the functioning of your application.
The community is very welcoming both on matrix and irc channels.
Gentoo also allows a choice of openrc and systemd, as well as runit....
Rating 9/10 because things are not perfect and even gentoo has bugs.
my Gentoo journey has just started few months ago but I already have switched all my computers to Gentoo. It is amazing. Only one computer has dual boot with Void. Before I just did back-ups for files and if something crashed, I just re-installed the distro from .iso. Now if something doesn't work I know how to fix it. I absolutely love the way I could switch from Xorg to Wayland. I used to have a Cinnamon DE and now my laptop is running Hyprland. All is done inside terminal and it's so easy. No need to fight against the distro.
I've been running Gentoo Linux for the last 20 years almost exclusively on both servers and desktops. This is definitely not for everyone, and it's definitely not without pain, even after that much time. But if you want to learn about how Linux works, how to set it up from scratch, and if you want to be able to configure each and every aspect of a certain package rather than just using whatever the package maintainer thought might be the suitable configuration, then Gentoo is worth taking a look.
I've tried a whole bunch of other distros over the past two decades and admittedly it's tempting to just pop in a USB stick with Ubuntu and have your new machine up and running in minutes. But after a few hours I usually get frustrated enough to spend some time and install Gentoo.
These days, with support for binary packages in addition to source packages, you can choose to install certain packages (e.g. browsers) pre-compiled in order to save compilation time, especially on older machines (I'm still running Gentoo on an 12 year old MacBook Air — it's the same Gentoo install I put on there in 2012).
I have installed Gentoo with Gnome profile on my mac mini and I am very happy with both operating systems - modern linux distribution
and MacOS. Earlier I have been using linux distros supported by t2linux.org project but eventually I have chosen less complicates, and more direct solution. Now I am using rEFInder to select OS that I want to use at the moment. Installation was quite easy and fast, comparing to LFS. You just have to take care of details and follow installation guide. I can not believe how effective the system is in terms of speed and resource usage. With the full featured Gnome 45.2 the top command shows that about 500 MB memory is active. I have never seen such thing right after logged in, especially on MacOS :) With stable gnome desktop profile everything just works: bluetooth, driverless printing, wifi. A lot to learn yet, but at the moment working with Gentoo was pleasant and rewarding experience.
I've used Gentoo on and off for years, and it's definitely not for everyone, but I respect what they do and the immense amount of work (on theirs and the user's part) that goes into making it all work so well. Not easy, not quick, but the amazing thing is that it all pretty much works as advertised (everything does compile, eventually), and there is indeed a certain pride that comes when you first get your DE working, among other little milestones along the way.
I reinstalled Gentoo recently and discovered that they have an extremely nice live-DVD with Plasma and tons of tools that makes a great place from which to start the install process. I stayed in the chroot until I had all the KDE stuff I wanted, plus apps. Booted right up into SDDM!
You really need to follow the handbook, which could be more succinct but has all the necessary information. I found it helpful to use the binary kernel, at least for now, because the kernel building process can get complicated quickly. I also go with the Firefox binary provided by Mozilla rather than have to recompile every week or two.
Once you're done compiling, what you end up with is whatever you want, though not dramatically different from any other serious distro. So yeah, not for everyone, especially those with limited patience or time, but you will learn a lot. It's nice that there's a distro that fills the space between LFS and Arch.
The install process is intimidating, but once it is set up, maintaining Gentoo is easy. You only need to run two commands to update your system. The Handbook guides you through the whole process.
OpenRC is a great choice as an init system, as it balances speed and ease of use. However, systemd is an officially supported option if you want to use it.
The package manager, Portage is helpful and intuitive. It automatically applies any needed changes to config files when it can, but when it doesn't, it usually tells you what was wrong and what you need to do. When there's a dependency loop, Portage even gives you a possible solution on what you can do! There are also optional tools to make system maintence easier, like Gentoolkit, which includes the euse command to add and remove use flags without manually editing configs.
A lot of packages that I want to use are in a "testing phase", which means when you try to install them, Portage by default blocks them. This is easily fixable by either whitelisting the package you want, or globally adding the ~amd64 (or whatever your architecture is) keyword in your config, which is what I did. So far I experienced no problems with it.
However, there are quite a few packages I wanted that just weren't in the repos. Because of the flexibility of Gentoo, one could probably write their own Ebuild file for these packages, or search the GURU repository. The GURU repository is Gentoo's version of the "Arch User Repository".
As a Wayland user, having the ability to exclude X support is cool. For my usage, I exclude X globablly but specifically give support for the apps that need it, like Xwayland.
On my computer, programs compiled with Gentoo are more efficient with RAM. It makes me wish I could compile closed-source programs, but sadly I cannot :(
I started using Linux in 1998. When I first installed Gentoo many years later, I knew it is my best distro.
Pros:
- source based
- portage and emerge - the best package manager
- openRC - the best "init"
- USE flags and other fine tunings like possibility to switch to clang, etc
- freedom of choice
- community
Cons:
for me, really none.
It is the most difficult distro ever :), but this is the point :) I have a full control! For me, it is another advantage :)
Yes, I am biased :)
As for today, I can't imagine switching to another distro. Maybe to Arch + openRC or Debian + openRC, but really? I need emerge and sources :)
Cheers!
Among all the distributions I operate for different purposes, this is my #1 for my closest, personal machines since the last almost 20 years.
Part of the philosophy is to tailor your system to the essential needs and optimize for the envisaged tasks while keeping things simple and close to the original Linux spirit.
The cost is the time spent when installing/updating the packages, as you'll compile them - as long you don't go the binary way (and therefore skip the magic).
Compared to my 2nd love Debian Gentoo packages are much more up-to-date, but the system needs more care.
The best Linux distribution I have ever used.
Thanks to this distribution I really understood what I needed and what I didn't need on my system.
I am truly in control of what happens on my PCs, for better or for worse.
You can also understand the frustration of users used to installing binaries, but for those who want to learn and really understand a linux system and are not afraid to make mistakes this is the distribution that gives you the most. I hope it will never change and that it will always stay this way.
The customization works nice for me. I don't want systemd as init and openrc, for me, might be the main advantage that gentoo has over other distros.
Bein able to unconfigure (e.g. systemd-)dependencies wherever possible for all packages is a big plus.
Compiling the system over again every x days of course is a bit tedious but I guess you can't have one without the other.
My personal environment is very lightweight, so I don't use any Desktop Environments etc.; Luckily, for libreoffice there's a binary package, too. That leaves me with the main heavyweights llvm, firefox, rust and maybe clang that will take their time to compile. Basically, updating every 3 days overnight does the job for me.
I would not trade the flexibility and most important freedom of choice that gentoo offers for a quicker install of packages, so I'm good.
I also have to say that for now 10+ years, the rolling releases have cause little trouble for me. On some rare occasions I had to fix some reverse dependencies when updating in bigger intervals like 1 or 2 months. Apart from that, I feel like using the same config and system for over 10 years now quite reliably. Even to the point that I feel that my knowledge of system maintenance is fading because I never hve to bother with it.
I've been using Gentoo for just over half a year and it's been a mixed bag.
The good
--------------
USEflags are great, how streamlined kernel customization and upgrading is is also great. The repositories have quite a good range of packages. The community is relatively helpful compared to others. eselect for wine is quite nice. I love being able to choose between stable and testing/unstable on a per-package basis. The choice of init systems is excellent too, OpenRC has given me 0 issues compared to systemd which would often hang for ~2min on every shutdown or restart on Arch and Debian, struggling to terminate something.
The bad
-------------
Compiling every (mostly every, there binary versions of a scant few packages like firefox and thunderbird) is a chore. Yes, I can still do stuff while I'm updating, but I'm not sure the load on my CPU, my time, and the heat blasted into my house every time something like gcc or llvm needs updated is worth it. I'm happy to compile the things I actually care about and want to customize, but when simple dependencies take 15-30 minutes each in some cases, I dread updating. It prevents me from using some packages I otherwise would enjoy using, too. In some cases it's been a good thing, as it's pushed me to try alternatives (ie newsboat instead of akkregator or rssguard), in others it's just a pain. I quite like the Cinnamon desktop, for example, but if I wanted to use it, I would have to compile a second version of llvm, webkit gtk and spidermonkey which all have quite demanding compile times.
Back to the repositories, I have begun to get the impression that Gentoo is lacking in working hands. It's not rare to come across packages in the official repos that mysteriously are without a maintainer, and have been for some time. I've also come across packages I used relatively frequently on other distros being bugged on Gentoo. Both of these things are quite a shame, because at first Gentoo felt very polished, and getting away from a lack of polish was part of why I ditched Arch for it. But overall, at this point, Arch might actually be more polished.
I don't think this distro is worth the effort. In the future I'd like to see a distro that uses binaries by default but supports a USEflags-esque system for customizing and compiling the packages where I actually give a damn about them. Until then I will probably return to something that is less work and feels more supported in general, whether Arch or Debian (the next release of Debian in particular sounds excellent, but that is a few months away yet)
I have been using Gentoo since 2001 (pre-release). It has been great.
If you don't have time to keep it updated, it will bite you.
USE flags and masking are awesome. This lets you customize your OS to what you want and mostly keep out stuff you don't.
If you want something minimal and/or enjoy tweaking, this is for you. A year ago, I would have given it a 10. This is a change in me, not it in. Lately, I haven't been using my computer as often, so it has been become less of a joy. I should probably have installed stable this time.
Regarding stable vs unstable: If you are going to have many unstable packages, use unstable. It is more stable than mixing too much.
According to the official website of Gentoo Linux , LiveGUI USB Image is 2 GiB, as soon as you start downloading, you will notice that it's not 2 GiB.. but almost 3 GiB.
In the first impression, as if everything is very easy and cool, but the deeper you go, the worse it gets with this Linux distro.
I got a feeling that the "fathers" of this Linux distro love to play an awful puzzle with you: making things complicated, saying one and offering something completely different.
I think you should be a biiiig fan of this club, and otherwise, please think 100 times before you start with this Gentoo Linux.
Good grief this thing is horrible.
Once you get past the nauseating install process, it's ready to use... kinda sorta.
If you enjoy having to fix things on a regular basis, this distribution is for you. Guess their definition of stable is different than mine. You get your hardware to work only to have it unravel soon after.
Makes sense the popularity of this is soooooo low.
The installation it's a bit harder, but after the installation is very good to use, especially if you have ever use arch linux. Because, it's allow you to configure manually all over the system. The kernel, it's actually great, you can costumize the kernel likely what you want. The features it's actually okay for me, but i really happy because the kernel can costumized.
The installation it's really slow, and it's hard for beginners or newbie. So, it's not worth for student like me :(
But, it's not mean you don't have to use gentoo. Try installing and enjoy it, because gentoo it's actually good for learing operating system
I use Gentoo as my daily computer, mostly general purpose, a bit of gaming, some basic office uses. I've used a number of different distros but their package managers usually end up giving me issues. Dependencies get lost or confused, programs conflict with other programs, random errors here and there for no reason.
I haven't had these issues with portage and gentoo. Yes, its more complex to set up and to maintain and it requires some learning, but its fun and the wiki/handbook are an INCREDIBLE resource for linux all around, not just gentoo.
I utilize the stable branch, running xfce with nvidia and it's been golden. I don't see myself switching distros anytime soon.
Pros: For Advanced Users and Programmers/Devs
Unstable (~AMD64) is usable much like Arch
Highly configurable, can be lightweight if desired
Portage has many options and tools that you can use
Possible Cons: Not for newbies, has steep learning curve
Configuration files must be managed by user
Kernel must be managed by user
I use the unstable branch, similar to Arch IMO. Stable is very stable and much like Debian (stale IMO). I use the zen kernel. Hooks for portage are not well documented and vague, but I finally made one to auto update initramfs and update grub if nvidia-drivers gets updated. I am a rare gentoo user in that I use a lot of resource heavy software, like KDE Plasma, Virtualbox, Bottles, Systemd etc. Working with ebuilds and modifying your own is not well documented, i.e. ebuild manifest (or merge.) Takes a lot of digging to find out where to store and how to install an ebuild. Arch makes PKGBUILD a lot more friendly IMO. Compile times in RAM work faster than on disk. Overlays for things not in gentoo repos are fine but I prefer to copy the few I need to my local repo and modify the ebuilds to get newer versions, etc. Installing a rare git pkg from source or with python is sometimes necessary as Gentoo repos aren't the most robust.
Larger root partition is a must as a lot of libraries and build dependencies will be installed; it will need at least double the space of binary distro for root partition. All said, I am happy with it.
Not really the best distro for the average user. Most users with be happy with a binary distro like Arch, *ubuntus, Debian, or Fedora. Is it faster? No, not really. Does it work well? It can depending upon the skill of the user. Not a 10 as the documentation is lacking in many areas & definitely in need of a modern overhaul. Also, repos are thinner than other distros.
This is my first review, and I am not a very good reviewer, but since I like Gentoo so much I decided to leave a review on DistroWatch.
I am not professional, at all, and this review is probably poorly written.
But here we go:
I absolutely love Gentoo, and is the only Distribution I have used for awhile.
It's package manager, portage, is very flexible and probably is the best package manager I've ever used. However, the installation is a pain. You have to do the installation manually. The biggest flaw with Gentoo's installation (which can probably deter a lot of new users) is the compile time. It can take you hours. And even worse, errors that occur during your installation are an absolute pain.
My successful installation took me 8 Hours, not including my previous attempts. Granted, most of it was issues I never encountered the first time for some reason, but I decided to experiment a bit.
Here are a few issues I had:
Each time I try to install linux onto my hard-drive, grub MUST be installed using the removable flag. If I had not known that, I could have legitimately spent a few days stuck, most of it being the compile time. I tried using grub-install onto my boot partition, however, grub-install threw an error that could have caused me hours of re-installing. The message stated that I ran out of storage on my EFI Partition, and I thought that for a minute that somehow my 1 GB EFI Partition ran out of space. So, I deleted EVERYTHING in my boot partition and then installing the distribution kernel. After doing all that, the same exact issue happened. I eventually figured out that this issue actually was caused by me forgetting the "--removable" flag (as I stated earlier). If I didn't know the day earlier, I COULD have spent weeks figuring out the problem (I often completely restart the installation, assuming its my problem)
Second: I had was with the proprietary nvidia drivers. So after installing nvidia-drivers and upon rebooting, my computer froze at the fsck check. For some reason, nvidia HATES ttys, however, I didn't know it when I was recently installing it, so I completely started over from scratch, spending 8 additional hours before coming to the realization that it was the nvidia driver. So I assumed it had to be something with the kernel configuration, as this happens to every linux distribution I use, so I hatched a plan to complete this. First was to install xorg and all the xorg drivers (the nvidia drivers will be installed), and then KDE. After installing SDDM and setting it up, this plan worked which is why I am able to be writing this review at the very moment.
But after all of those issues, I still find myself ONLY wanting to use Gentoo. Yet, after hours of trouble, I still wanting to use Gentoo only. Most distributions I use, personally, aren't very stable. I feel like Gentoo somehow (after the trouble I went through to get it running) is quite stable. However, I would never do another re-install of Gentoo (this was a re-installation) until I have to.
Gentoo Linux is for smart people very customizable. Everything is compiled from sources and you can see the real dependencies so you can decide which useless features you disable in order not to pull unwanted packages
You can get fastest speeds for you specific cpu /gpu.
You can install multiple version of same package, multiple versions of llvm gcc compilers.
More easy to beef up security and disable unwanted /risky packages.
Easier port to new hardware,
They did not fall for systemd scam, offered alternatives from the start
Gentoo Linux is a great distro that is very customizable. Gentoo allows users to customize their kernel and packages installed onto their system. Gentoo also supports a variety of hardware architectures, allowing users freedom to choose their hardware. Gentoo can speed up an old system or low end system. Gentoo is also good for running a specific task, such as a game server, due to its lightweight design.
Gentoo does come with some difficulties, especially for new people. Gentoo's compile speed will depend solely on your hardware, this isn't Gentoo's fault as Gentoo allows you to compile packages from source, however, binary packages can be installed for large packages. Gentoo's repository is small, meaning that not many packages or up to date packages will be found. Gentoo can easily be broken, again not Gentoo's fault, but a warning for newbies who want to install Gentoo.
Gentoo does follow the "With great power comes great responsibility" philosophy, it is easy to break the system, however, if used right, can be a great experience. I personally wouldn't run Gentoo on a high end workstation, as compiling from source wouldn't show any noticeable performance improvements.
Portage is a truly beautiful package manager and Gentoo is fun to maintain. As others have experienced, the first installation was a bit tough for me, but the instructions are terrific and complete. Using a default kernel adds to the compiling time, detracts from the customization, but it does help to get your first system up and running, and you can return after to refining a custom kernel. The IRC community is very friendly and helpful. The system that I got out of it was fast, although a lot of RAM gets used while compiling certain programs relative to my old laptop's capacity.
I attempted to install Gentoo in a kvm where I use various flavors of linux with absolutely no problems. After 5 days, countless hours and probably at least 5 reinstall attempts I was finally able to get past the grub menu which is where it hung on the first 3 attempts. I saw other people having the same issue and the best advice on the forums was to read the manual, LOL. The documentation is lacking and seems to leave you hanging in several places; do I do this?, do I do that?, where do we go from here? then having to configure USE & CPU flags that dont really give you any guidance either. I was able chroot back in to the failed installs and went back through all the settings, etc which were correct then ended up deleting them and starting over carefully reading through the docs again and finally grub came up and was expecting a nice new gnome desktop and nothing but a cli. I went through dmesg and it booted clean so I started searching for more info and found a gnome page and went through that and thinking startx might work but nope, no go. I'm guessing there may be some settings that need to be added for vm's but who knows. Not sure if this will install on bare metal better than a vm and I may try it sometime but I dont recommend wasting your time with it, there are way better distros out there that can be up and running in less than 20 minutes. This is at best a "hobby" distro that should be used as a learning tool and not much else.
I've been using gentoo since 2008. I know is hard at first and the learning curve is slow but the community is super friendly. I guess even if you try installing it, you'll learn a lot about filesystems, kernels, GUI, etc.
I work on gentoo on my everyday machine, it's fast and smooth even though I've a 7 years old PC. Update takes it time, but hey! this is Linux, you always can schedule an update, stop it and start it whenever you have time to do so.
This is a rolling release distro, this means you don't have to reinstall everything because there is a new release nor lose your repo, I know this feature isn't very popular for server but for home PC users I feel it's lovely.
You want to use wayland, you can, you want to use xorg also you can, same for gnome, kde, xfce, or even a "deepin" beautiful base frame, systemd or not, the choice is yours, be free to feel it, whatever you want your gentoo could be, I guess this powerful freedom it's hard to manage, and you have to be quite brave to embrace it.
I want you to join us, be an spartan, be a gentoo user.
Gentoo fully embodies the opensource mindset: source is downloaded and compiled locally. The package manager (Portage/emerge) handles this smoothly: source files are downloaded from their respective repository, configured per your settings, and then compiled.
True, the performance gains over precompiled binaries aren't what they were 10-15 years ago, but the capabilities that become available are worth it. In a theoretical sense, this opens up ultimate security and customization.
Rebuilding my full install on 8 current-gen (2022) cores takes a good 5-6 hrs. That yields Openbox, Firefox, basic multimedia, and Steam games, among others. If you really want to break the mold, a few major apps are also offered in binary form (eg Libreoffice). Caution: it's not light on disk space (30+ gig for my root).
I update monthly, which can take up to an hour, depending on packages. Portage lets you set a "nice" value for the compiler calls, which keeps the system usable for light work. Updating systems with default configurations is generally as easy as using pacman or apt.
Though definitely not for beginners, documentation is generally well written and other outstanding doc efforts like Arch are applicable more often than not.
What you end up with is a system that can inherently build most anything. Want to test out the latest GPU drivers from Mesa git with an obscure branch of wine/DXVK? The tools are ready to go. This is streamlined, customizable opensource at a fundamental level.
Gentoo linux is clearly a distribution for someone who knows about linux, has some knowledge about console tools and understands what building from source means and works.
For me it is more than just linux.
It is a learning tool, because you have to dive deep into how things work and why.
It is fast, because you can fine tune every aspect, from the binaries to the configuration exactly as you like and for your own system (archtecture,cpu, graphics, etc)
It is secure, as you do not run any foreign binary in your system.
And on top of all it us fun!
I've been using Gentoo Linux for more than five years now as my main desktop environment with plasma both on my desktop pc and my laptop, and I can say with confidence that I will enjoy it for many years to come.
Gentoo is an incredible distribution: everything (well, almost...) comes
in source and gets compiled on your own machine, with your own settings.
Big packages like for example the kernel, Firefox, Chromium, etc. also
come in binary form for convenience. There are currently 19,800 packages
in the Gentoo repo and probably only a dozen or so are binary - wow.
Installation can take a few hours, depending on the speed of your pc and
whether you use a compiled kernel or not. Installation without reading
the documentation is impossible. However, after reading the Gentoo Handbook
carefully, installation is not that hard.
The main difference with other Linux distributions is Portage - Gentoo's
package management system. Most of your learning about Gentoo will probably
be about Portage and its seemingly unbounded flexibility and countless
features.
Beside customization, another good thing about Gentoo is security: when
updating the system the package manager tells you if your installation
is affected by any of the vulnerabilities recorded in the Gentoo database
(which gets updated regularly and promptly). I also like the Gentoo 'hardened'
profile and its full support for SELinux (btw, Gentoo's documentation on
SELinux is particularly clear and useful - probably one of the best that
I've come across).
To sum up: Gentoo comes with generally excellent documentation (some topics
are slightly outdated, although that is clearly stated). Expect to spend
half a day reading the Gentoo Handbook *in full* and installing the system.
After this, I think I needed another couple of days for properly 'digesting'
the material. But now I have a much better understanding of how Gentoo works
and have been able to customize it to my needs.
Gentoo is an amazing system - congrats to its developers!
The compile time is not worth the headache. Unless you have some very specific needs with regards to software, the kernel, or drivers, then this distro would be a waste of your time. There is a huge learning curve. You have to learn how to compile packages, configure a kernel, and setup all the packages in your system. You also will have to research and learn how to configure many of the config files on your system. This literally takes weeks if not months of research and trial and error. There is no noticeable speed improvement when compiling packages vs. using binary packages, so it is not rewarding with regards to how much time it takes to setup and maintain. If you are new to Linux, do not waste your time. If you have specific needs, love to tinker, have thousands of hours to waste and love compiling software for hours, then this distro is perfect for you. It is mainly ideal on severs that do not require a desktop GUI, such as a home file server.
Most distros offer a minimal install option with no desktop that can install in under ten minutes, which is the faster option.
The community and development team at Gentoo is very small compared to other distros. If you have a problem, expect to fix it yourself. Also, I think the documentation is out of date so be prepared for many things not to work without further troubleshooting.
What I find most fascinating about Gentoo is the possibility for you to build a unique system, designed, executed and customized exactly how you want it how you need it. No unnecessary trinkets, no services and daemons running in the background and consuming precious resources.
After a couple of years of trying, installing and reinstalling everything from scratch, I finally managed to put together a system that I consider to be perfect, that fully meets my needs, both on development and production platforms.
So, for these considerations, I consider Gentoo a special system, unique, light years away from the hundreds of "more of the same" distributions offered on blogs, websites and specialized publications.
Gentoo Linux is a rare and unconventional distribution.
I decided migrate to Gentoo from Fedora. I am truly amazed with Gentoo. I am using on my main machine, Lenovo notebook. 1400 packages and no compilations errors, it is impressive. I am using Steam, Libreoffice, Gnome Desktop, GIMP, Virt-manager, Flatpaks. Podman, Emacs, Firefox.
My only issue was with Podman. I used custom kernel and Gentoo documentation is outdated, but I could manage instalation.
It is better than Arch, of course it is my opinion. Gentoo is more stable, more cohese distro.
I think this distribution cannot be practically used on average because every time you try to install or upgrade it is going to be very slow. It is very ungreen program distribution technic. But it is not the worst. You should know how to configure Linux kernel exclusively to your machine. If you don't genkernel (the way to compile an universal kernel) is going to take several hours away on every update. Oh, I have just forgotten if you will try to update your system more then one time in day you are going to be banned for several days. It is crazy for source based distro. I had quited trying to install because precompiled kernel versions didn't run on my laptop and genkernel is not the way I can choose. Maybe if you have a very rare CPU architecture you will like Gentoo but many other distros have already been supporting ARM, for example, and I don't see any advantages in this solution. The FLAGs is the most crazy thing I have seen in all distribution I tried. If you haven't chosen functionality of your system during installation you cut off your abilities or new needs in programs you are going to install.
Gentoo is unique: no other distro makes it so easy to make huge changes to how everything works, and then have those changes continue to be maintained and supported across time, so that heavily customised systems can still be kept up-to-date as upstream packages evolve. You basically give it a recipe for how you want your system built, and then it builds it that way from source, continually following your instructions if it's able to do so, as packages are updated...or prompting you if things have changed so much that you need to change your recipe. The outcome of all this is that you (a) have much more control over how you want your system to work, and so of course (b) you have to invest much more time in designing and maintaining it.
As the project says itself, it's a "meta-distro": more like a set of tools for creating and maintaining your own distribution than a "distribution" in the normal sense (which involves particular selections of packages and configurations and so on). One person's Gentoo can look identical to an Ubuntu desktop, and have the same GNOME software and systemd and all the rest underneath it...another's can use a completely different init system and work with only the minimal software necessary to run a fast light window manager: it's like the kind of GUI customization that most Linux users do, only you do it with everything, from boot manager to desktop, even building your own custom kernels (the standard install procedure actually has you configuring your own kernel from scratch, choosing everything from the hardware and filesystems through to the timings and power management and so on). Obviously this is a nightmare for some people: for others it's a dream come true.
I would never recommend Gentoo to non-technical users who are just wanting to surf the Internet and listen to music and write emails and so on: there's just no point in building your own unique system if you're happy with what's already available. On the other hand for real geeks and control freaks who enjoy fine-tuning everything to their exact specifications, it doesn't really get any better than Gentoo. Of course Arch does things more quickly and easily, Slackware does things more predictably and reliably, there are more opportunities to do things entirely your own way with LFS, and so on and so on...but in terms of hitting the sweet spot between power to change stuff (everything is built from source and can be configured and/or patched to work differently) and ease of maintaining all that change (e.g. you can type a single command and have hundreds of packages rebuilt, removing their support for features you don't want and building in new support for features you do), it's hard to beat Gentoo.
I've given it 9/10 for what it is:it's a meta-distro, a framework for building your own distro however you like it, and enjoying official support for all that customisation. If it were trying to be an enterprise distro like Red Hat or a beginner-friendly distro like Ubuntu it would suck badly, of course...but Red Hat and Ubuntu already exist, so go use them if that's what you want: Gentoo is brilliant at what it's meant to be.
I used to use Gentoo years ago. After years away, I decided to go back and give it a go. The distro supposedly supports systemd. However, the installation guide hasn't changed much in 15 years. There are some references to systemd and a link to the systemd page, but the install instructions are seriously lacking. The forums are sparse. It takes hours to compile the base system, even on 8 cores with -j6 enabled. The software is not bleeding edge unless you opt for testing in your make file. Supposedly it is about choice. . . the choice not to know what to do next it seems.
If you like to tinker around in the system and compile software all the time, this is for you. If you have a spare computer around it would be great. Otherwise, I find that anything you learn in Gentoo you can also learn in other distros, i.e. compile and install a kernel. At least someone who has done it before would be willing to document it in detail for you.
I will work on it when I get a few hours of spare time seems to be there motto here. This distro seems to be used by a core group of the same people who have been around for years and yet have no interest in making it less of a fishing expedition. I got it up and running but there were lots of issues. It is not straight forward by any means, even when following the handbook if you can even call it that.
Pros: you can install a light base system with out a lot of bloat if you are interested in a command line system such as for a server
Cons: too many to list, but primarily poorly documented outdated documentation, pitfalls and bugs galore
I would pass if I were you but if not don't say I didn't warn you.
I've been using Gentoo since Corona gave me some more home office time.
I used to use RedHat (with Enterprise support) mainly for servers and Ubuntu for desktop clients. At home I chose Arch Linux.
Arch is really cool, but far too unstable for a serious working machine.
Now I've found my desktop and (private) server distribution with Gentoo. Gentoo is rock solid, fast and delivers very up to date packages.
In January of this year I switched most of our office workstations to Gentoo. With your own local bin-repo and distcc, updating at compile time is no longer a real problem.
Unfortunately Gentoo didn't have corporate support, so most of our servers are running Redhat.
Got into Gentoo since it was the only desktop OS at the time that supported amd64, never left. If you are not in a complete hurry (like 5mins before your presentation starts) Gentoo is the only distribution that is worth spending time with. Portage is on another level compared to all the other package managers and use flags are a dream come true. You can control and build your system and it will be as lightweight or heavyweight as you want. Not as someone else promises. It takes a bit of commitment but the learning and understanding Linux experience is well worth it.
Best distro ever, I've tried many but none of them are as customisable
The performance are awesome
The package manager is very well done. We can modify everything easily.
We almost always have the last version of software. The use of layman is also very good nice to have
We can easily have many different desktop environment. The system will calculate by itself what is required and will set all the package at the right version to keep consistency.
I also like the fact that it's a rolling release distro. This way we always have the last version of the distro.
I will always recommend this distro except for noob :)
The trick with source-based distros is to keep them lean!!!! That is why I do not have a full-blown desktop environment but instead use openbox as a standalone window manager with flatpaks and voila: it's a killer combo. I couldn't be happier ^_^. I do have Debian installed on my laptop as an alternative distro since it's the most stable binary based distro I've found and in a production environment, time is money. My heart truly belongs to Gentoo though. I highly recommend it to anyone who truly love Linux. You will not regret your choice.
As stated before, Gentoo is probably not for everyone. Better say, it is for everyone, but not for every use case. If you expect distribution that will run out-of-the-box with minimum hassle, it might frustrate you, because it won't. Probably because there is no "box" in the first place.
You are encouraged (and expected) to configure a lot of stuff yourself. Because, frankly there is no other way to run such flexible and customizable operating system. Also, speed benefits on modern day hardware are marginal compared to binary distributions. It does not mean that Gentoo isn't sleek and fast: it is. But I don't consider that a main advantage.
What makes Gentoo stand out is what it allows you to do. It allows you to take control of every single tiny aspekt of your OS. To customize every package as you compile and install it, leaving unnecessary code (and bugs) out. It allows you to learn a lot in the process and Gentoo community is very knowledgeable about what they do and maintain. So your questions will be answered in very detailed fashion.
It is an hobbist distro, but the work that developers do (in their free time) is astonishing. Gentoo have very professional and sophisticated community and if you put a little effort on your side you can benefit from it greatly.
So if you are interested in learning how linux works and take more control into your own hands, this is definetely distribution for you. But you should be also prepared to invest some time to install and maintain it. Once you do, things will became much less demanding over time.
ad. compiling time: Yes, compiling takes time, there is no way around it. But usually you can make use of distcc and offload the work to other computers in your network, speeding the things up considerably. Also saving your configuration files makes a lot of difference for any subsequent installations.
As an amateur of GNU/Linux, Gentoo has been a lodestone for me. Pre-configuring, compiling, and configuring every detail of a system is probably in-itself of marginal practical performance benefit for anybody who--like me--makes normal use of standard (in my case aging) hardware. Installing Gentoo takes time. It took me the better part of a week to get a fully stacked configured and customized system--three days to get a minimally functioning system with a custom kernel that were filled with reading and failure. If not for some downtime during the holidays during which I could devote myself to a little project, I would never have attempted it. When finally got a functioning system up and running with a custom kernel, fine-grained package control, and custom-compiled programs, the result was very satisfyingly slick!
Compiling can take hours, but this is somewhat of a chimera used to scare people away from Gentoo, and an excuse by those who failed. Windows managers like i3 and dwm don't take very long to compile. Once you have the basics of the system in place, you can easily compile away on the bigger programs out of sight and mind in another tty or workspace.
Portage is a marvel! It calculates dependencies making use of your own global, and customized package-specific flags, and then suggests configuration modifications your you to proceed with downloading, compiling and installing the source code. Installation is more detailed and takes far more manual intervention than with binary distributions--whether you consider this to be a positive or a negative is a good litmus test for whether Gentoo is the right tool for you. You can be confident that you will not be left alone in dependency hell, but you will need to manage dependencies with portage's help.
I installed my system in 2021 on an Thinkpad T440s with Intel I5-4200U-Haswell processor (2013 release), 140G SSD, 8G RAM (from which I allocate a ZRAM tempfs for compiling).
Gentoo lets you customize your system with USE flags and a custom kernel. Gentoo gives you a lot of customization and allows you to build your own system. There are some binary packages including the kernel, however, majority of the packages are source based. Gentoo definitely requires Linux experience and is not for new users to Linux. Gentoo is geared towards a technical audience.
Pros:
Custom packages
Extremely optimized
Customization
No systemd (a pro for some)
Cons:
Compiling can take a long time depending on your hardware.
Despite being lightweight and customizable, gaming on this distro is slower compared to other distros even with mesa installed.
A few packages are still outdated, for example, Java.
It took me 3 days to get a working system on a i3-10th gen Intel CPU with 8 GB of ram. I got a system with DWM and it uses around 200MB on idle.
Gentoo is not for everyone. You have to spend a lot of time and it is a steep learning curve. It needs most decent hardware if you want to use a big DE like KDE or GNOME. It takes a lot of time to build software like Chrome, Qtwebengine. Therefor most expereinced binary distro users will not like it and it is not for these use cases.
If you like micro management and want to have every aspect of your hardware configured. And you like slim and suckless software, and secure software just by enabling or disabling USE flags, and want to learn much about linux and software and have time for this. Then gentoo is definitely for you.
I am gentoo user since more than a decade, and I personally dislike the long build times on big software packages like Chrome. Some packages have binaryies in portage some do not. Get a new CPU or distribute compiling over other nodes to shorten build times.
You have to compile everything, which most likely takes days, it is pretty unfriendly because of that. System resource usage is a bit, the gnome and xfce desktop environments are slow and bloated and full of applications I don’t need to or care to use.
The package manager and KISS principle install process is the sole reason why I gave this distro a 10/10 rating. I started using Gentoo around a year or two ago and I'm not looking back. The installation isn't hard for no reason. It's hard because it has to be: to provide maximum customization to users - which is one of Gentoo's core ideas - you have to provide as much of it during install as possible. You can have an optimized install, an install with exotic hardware such as touchscreens working, a beautiful install, etc. running. But unlike some other KISS distros such as Arch, Gentoo provides a source-based package manager (Portage) with a customization method called USE flags, which can be set globally or to just one package. USE flags let specific parts of one or multiple programs to be added or taken out. Along with the highly customizable do-it-yourself install process, these flags provide maximum customization. It is also fairly easy to get packages into the main tree, and even easier to get them into community "overlays," which are configuration files adding a git or rsync repo which Portage can get packages from. Finally, the packages which take a long time to compile sometimes have binary packages if you're willing to give up customization for quicker installation times. The one small gripe of mine is that some large packages, such as webkit-gtk, don't have a binary version to speed up installation if I don't want to customize that specific package.
It is almost perfect fit for me.
+ Portage
+ source code
+ fully personalised
+ fast
- issues with software not made for it - like ExpressVPN (spent few days to set it up), Bitwig (spent one day)
- some things are just not working for me - like a WiFi printer ( works fine in different distros)
- you have to remember to update it like every week, if not you will end up with a system which is not upgradable without spending weeks to fix this:)
Overall - besides all its drawback - this is my GNU/Linux nr.1 !!!
1. try Gentoo on real hardware. Not in VM's. First, you can install Ubuntu on HD. And, you can follow instrucions inside Ubuntu.
2. kernel tips. Go for dist-kernel first. Everything is working? Move to compile your kernel with genkernel. Everything still works? Try set up and compile manually, for last step.
3. Dont install X. Check if you system is up. After, change to KDE or Gnome profile and install X.
4. Grab firefox-bin. It is pre-compiled Firefox, it saves a lot of time.
5. Install more specific drivers for your hardware, recompile your kernel removing unnecessary modules.
You need patient and perseverance. At the end of process, you can enjoy your KDE (in my case) running with 700Mb of RAM or DWM with 200Mb of RAM. It is really great for humble hardwares.
Some reviews here state that Gentoo is not a beginner's distro, and that is absolutely correct.
Don't use it if you want a working system out of the box, quick installs of new packages, and do not like to understand how a Linux system actually works. Also, if you do not like using the command line, then this distro is not for you.
However, if you have a good understanding of Linux / Unix concepts, do not mind a bit of work, and if you are picky with respect to the software packages you enjoy using or how your system is set up, then this is the best distro out there. Mix and match to your heart's content.
The default installation is quite bare, with no software bloat installed. You can choose to either deploy a complete a desktop environment (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, MATE, LXQT, and many more), or just install only the packages you want, tailored to your specific needs. The options to tailor your machine are endless: no two Gentoo systems are identical. Yet, with Gentoo's dependency based package manager, you always end up with a consistent system. You can even choose your filesystem (EXT4, BTRFS, JFS, etc), or init system (OpenRC, systemd, S6).
Gentoo is very good at getting the best performance out of your hardware by utilizing the specialized instruction set of your CPU for the kernel and for compiled software. This includes also CPU instructions for encryption and decryption, which can speed up internet browsing (https, imaps), and disk encryption (luks). Most distros install precompiled versions of the kernel and of software packages and cannot take full advantage of the capabilities of your system, but Gentoo can.
Lastly, Gentoo users and developers form a great community, with helpful people on irc, and a second to none wiki.
If this all appeals to you then you should definitely have a go at Gentoo Linux.
I installed it, and it worked, I was not too fond of it, and I installed something that was not counting on me not having anything to do for a month while I compile my clock, browser, and everything else. I use Gnome, and that makes the installation take twice as long.
The install guide is good, but it does not tell you that it takes days to complete if you are not running a thread-ripper AMD with 64 cores. With this Linux distribution, you will never have to worry about viruses. Your computer will not get one, and neither will you because your social life is over. You wanted to install something (you poor fool). By the time you have this installed, you will forget that it is a day ending in Y. If you have a two or four-core CPU and two GB per thread, you will not know what daylight is, and take a shower when you are done (you will need it).
During the installation process, you will see things flash across your screen that you were never meant to see, and it will look like the Matrix broke in half as it compiles everything as the day ticks by. I am pretty sure that I saw the missing transcripts from the Nixon tapes and the names of the Roswell aliens in there. Strange stuff
Pros:
- incredibly customizable
- clean
- portage has some cool features
Cons:
- frequent dependency and use-flag conflicts which you have to manually resolve
- package availability, there's really not a lot of them even in the overlays
- compilation times
- you need to have a brain to use it (turns out I don't have one)
The best for configurability, let's you create a customized distro you are happy with. Amazing set of available packages and extending with custom software much easier than with a rpm or deb based distribution.
The downside is that it is more time consuming to manage, don't use if you are pressed for time or just don't want to deal with it. I probably spend an hour on average every week managing my home network.
Its great. It stopped me from distrohopping every month. You can set custom use flags for compiling (its a source based distro). Its fast and small. Try it if you havnt!
Not for beginners. But after using Mandrake and Fedora, I learnt sooo much when I first installed Gentoo in 2007! Before Gentoo, I would run away with my tail between my legs when something I wanted required recompilation of my Linux kernel mumbling that I wasn't thát desparate. Since that first install (which took a day and a night; the night to compile KDE) it seems like a piece of cake. Before Gentoo, I knew how to use a Linux system, since Gentoo I know how to USE a Linux system: how to partition and format discs, configure and compile a kernel, optimise code for my processor, create system services, etc. Since Gentoo, I feel I can tackle any Linux issue.
I'm spoiled now by the amount of choice; I can configure nearly everything. Software is compiled from source and optimised for my CPU. So-called USE flags enable me to switch off or on different parts of each software package: no Bluetooth support if my system doesn't have Bluetooth, no Gnome support when I run KDE/Plasma and no GUI at all on a headless machine. Gentoo currently offers 10 different versions of the gcc compiler, is available for 14 different architectures (many more than just x86(_64) and arm) and comes with 14 USE flags for detailed configuration. Hence, a whopping 150 billion different versions of gcc can be installed when using Gentoo (albeit only 10.7 billion on any given system). Of course I'll never try them all, but imagine how often I can change my mind before I run out of options!
The drawback is compilation time: installing a typical package takes minutes, not seconds. As a solution, my system updates itself when my laptop is awake during the (usually Friday) night. If the process is still ongoing in the morning, I can kill it, so that I can use my laptop normally during the day, and resume it in the evening. For me, the compilation times are worth it, but I'm sure this is not true for all.
I've been using Gentoo Linux as a desktop and server system for over 12 years. I love the flexibility and diversity of the operating system.
The documentation is very detailed and easy to understand.
I've got used to the compilation time. The control of the package installations via USE flags is a privilege that I do not want to do without.
Keep it up :)
Every next day ...
... more masked packages,
... more outdated packages,
... more missing packages.
For many packages you have to look in the overlay or try to install from source by configuring your ebuild with git preferably.
If you send source code to try to be approved, get ready for the impossible mission.
Gentoo linux is highly configurable OS, but beware: there is no install wizard! It is a minimal OS, you only install the features and packages YOU need. Desktop users should expect to spend some time configuring and compiling everything. At least the documentation is good (compared to "just works" OS's like Fedora or Ubuntu).
It's package management is source based, but there is support for binary packages as well. Large packages like firefox or libreoffice can be installed via binary. If you have a fleet of computers, you can compile once and distribute your binaries easily. You can also use distcc to compile across multiple computers.
Gentoo also has a number of nice features including:
USE flags - makes it easy to manage package features and optional dependencies
Crossdev - bootstraps compilers (for example mingw or arm64)
Genkernel - configures and compiles your kernel/initramfs
OpenRC - alternative Init system to systemd, easy to make init scripts
Elogind - alternative to systemd's logind
Gentoo Linux has an interesting vision for what an OS should be. It's not perfect, but it may be the best OS for experienced linux users.
If you know what you want and there is no good distro for you - gentoo is your choice. Maybe its's complicated sometimes and takes much time but result is amazing. And you can make anything you want - server, home pc, laptop
PROS:
- Flexibility. Don't need something - just don't install it (or forbid it's support if possible). I can install system and apps without pulseaudio support
- Speed and suitable. It's extremely fast if you do everything right and compile for your hardware. Most distros make generic packages (must work on every hardware) so they just disable some things like ss4 etc. But you can turn them on and speed up old pc. I could easily run fullhd videos on vlc2 on intel x3100 graphics (win7 couldn't)
- No systemd. Openrc just works fine
- If your hardware is not working after install - just edit config and recompile kernel. Sometimes you got amazed and remove from kernel too much :)
- Package managers serves to you. Emerge can easily remove app without dependencies or if you want it will try to compile only chosen package without dependencies. It's wonderful and very often the app works even without deps.
- Great installation and configuration guide
- You can make smaller apps and kernel by removing unnecessary features before compilation
- X86 still supported. Even old
CONS:
- Sometimes even on stable you got untested update and in couple of days you receive new update for it and have to downgrade Oo
- Emerge is very flexible but also slow in calculating dependencies
- Installer is fully manual and you wish they really could make some steps automatic so you wouldn't have to insert so many commands
- Sometimes you can get troubles like alsa working as kernel but not working as module or trouble with ntfs copying big files.
- Almost 1 GB on your hard drive - recipes for building apps
- I just got tired compiling
But it's still best distro ever! Long live, best wishes!
One of the few Linux distro's I can actually tolerate.
Portage is the most flexible package manager I've seen in any Linux distro. Not the most easiest to use, not the safest in untrained hands, but definitively the most flexible. Pretty much any situation is fixable without downtime if you put enough effort into it. I have gentoo systems around that haven't had to be reinstalled in 10+ years.
I recommend it for daily drive. Updating is usually fast like 15 minutes. Sometimes there are huge updates like gcc, webkit-gtk, llvm, QtWebEngine, so you can update before go to bed. There is also life beyond computers. The Gnome memory footprint is lower than any other distro I used. Gentoo can compile binaries to your processor. I have Intel and AMD hardware, there is no restriction.
For beginners:
- strict follow the handbook, dont need youtuber installation guide, dont need chatgpt guidance;
- select plasma or gnome profile, there is no need for special use flags, strict with MAKEOPTS, VIDEO_DRIVER and INPUTS;
- OpenRC is easier for installing
- nvidia users: keep in mind, there is nvidia systemd units. nvidia drivers has better compatibility with systemd;
- first boot: install gentoo-kernel or gentoo-kernel-bin. One is from source, the other is the binary.
I am healed from distro hopping vicious. Thank you Gentoo Anonimous.
TLDR; Good distro, not as hard as people make it look like, totally recommend it
this distro is a rabbit hole in and of itself, portage is a very unique concept executed so correctly and the distro is so modular and i know EXACTLY whats happening in my computer everytime i install a package, turn it on and do stuff on my computer.
this distro while definitely not for beginners or the faint of heart is really good, the modularity of it is about as modular as it gets, you know what you put in your computer to minimize bloat.
while being dreaded as this "final boss" of linux and that its "the hardest distro in existence" is really just people who never used it and its really something worth getting into, this distro is also very known so guides aren't that hard to come by but this distro is really about as hard to install as arch, but the documentation is also much better than arch, but i won't yap too much, at the end of the day gentoo is a truly good distro that is worth the time you can sink into it
Gentoo Linux is a truly unique and for the most part, underrated Linux distro.
Its main target is definitely those who know what they are doing, and or want fine control over their system. Despite this, it has an incredibly written documentation that holds your hand through many stages that could otherwise be a major headache. Its documentation alone is underrated too for this very reason. You WILL learn lots about Linux through the usage of Gentoo.
As for drawbacks, there’s a couple things you should keep in mind. Gentoo compiles packages on your machine rather than downloading precompiled binaries. This means downloads may take longer, and having medium to high end specs will definitely be useful on your Gentoo journey. Some software may take a fairly large amount of time to compile, so in cases like this you can look into using Gentoo’s pre compiled versions (often ending in -bin) to keep things fast at the cost of a reduced customisation.
The Gentoo community is also one of the nicest and most helpful communities I’ve seen in a distro. Everyone will welcome you with open arms and help you with everything big or small. They even have a good sense of humour.
At the beginning, Gentoo will guide you what to do. Once familiar, you’ll be guiding Gentoo what to do. :)
The Gentoo community is supportive and knowledgeable, offering extensive documentation through the Gentoo Handbook and active forums. Portage, the heart of Gentoo, offers unparalleled flexibility and customization. Want a minimal installation? Nothing easier.
The power of Portage shines in its dependency management. It resolves complex package dependencies with ease, ensuring a smooth and trouble-free installation process. The rolling release model keeps your system updated with the latest software. I find Gentoo much more user friendly than Ubuntu.
Everything about this OS is amazing, the power you have to do what you want, the independence you have because you control the software, the freedom to control your system at it's max potential. Anything you want out of an OS you can make possible with Gentoo. The fact that to download a package it downloads the source code then compiles it, the OS assuming you're in control of everything, the power of it being able to run on anything. The privacy, the security, the compatibility. The speed, and the efficiency. You are in control.
I've had plenty of time to think about what I like and dislike about Gentoo, so I decided that a 'pros and cons' style list would be the best way to see why I chose Gentoo as a daily-driver.
PROS:
- Fast binaries: When you compile from source with specific use flags (-march=native, -O3/-O2, etc.) the compiler is fully allowed to use special assembly instructions that can greatly improve the performance of binaries. Many have said in the past that Gentoo's performance isn't the main selling-point anymore, but as compilers become more and more advanced with processor-intrinsic assembly, I find that difficult to fully agree with. The performance you get with native compilation is unmatched, and fantastic if you're managing a large system/database with a lot of data to sift through.
- Incredible customization: A large part of Gentoo is its customization process. Ideally, you customize your kernel as well, taking away the functionality you don't need. This greatly limits overhead at the lowest level. Some people also like that it doesn't force you into using Systemd like Arch, although that is almost entirely opinion-based. Here's a list of things that are entirely your choice: Bootloader, init system, filesystem, partition-sizing, kernel (builtins and modules, along with the type of kernel). I genuinely could go on, but this section is already disproportionately long.
- Amazing package manager: Aside from the basics that have already been stated, Portage is very intuitive with the way it handles packages. If you don't explicitly tell it to use bleeding-edge packages, it is ridiculously safe. There are many, many options to change its functionality, and default options can be specified easily in the `make.conf` file. There are also community-contributed repositories, similar to the AUR.
- USE flags: Don't have or want bluetooth? Disable it. Do you use Wayland? Disable Xorg windowing for packages that don't need it. This goes for almost anything on your system and can be enabled/disabled globally or per-package. There are many, many USE flags. You don't have to pay for what you don't eat!
CONS:
- Slowww downloads: If you're constantly downloading software, Gentoo struggles. As everything is built from source, larger projects like Firefox can take about an hour to fully compile (although recently, in an effort to entirely remove this issue, Portage also allows you to download binary packages for select packages). I would personally agree that Arch is more user-friendly when it comes to mass package installation.
- Requires technical knowledge: You're gonna have to get close to the machine if you want to use Gentoo. The installation process will take several hours at the minimum and is a very involved process.
- Here be dragons: There won't be a lot of help if you break your system. Being arrogant with use flags (-Ofast, -ffast-math) can very easily produce binaries that simply do not work. Additionally, very few online tutorials will show Gentoo-specific instructions. Gentoo is absolutely a trial-by-fire, and you will be forced into learning many things alone.
TL;DR -- Gentoo is for highly advanced users who want an extremely optimized system tailored to their specific needs.
I've used Gentoo on and off for decades now, not in any coding or tech capacity, not even for work. I'm just your average older computer user with a love of Linux and a willingness to learn if there's a payoff. I use my computer for everyday things mainly - web browsing with Firefox (though I'll admit to using the Mozilla binary rather than compiling it) and lots of media consumption, including managing a gigantic music collection comprising 1.2TB and well over 200,000 files. Gentoo handles it all with fewer issues than most other distros. Over the years I've managed to bork my install a few times, mainly through neglect, but now I know more, stick with the stable branch and update regularly. It works if you care for it. It just needs more attention than most.
Yes, the install/update process is much more involved than most distros, and it's easy to make mistakes. But the documentation is pretty great overall, if a little too detailed at times perhaps, and not always in a straight line. As with Arch, you need to know what you want ahead of time, then it's just a matter of putting the puzzle together. It'll take longer with Gentoo of course, because compiling everything takes time. There are ways to mitigate that however - though it's gonna take what it takes at first. I use the binary kernel in addition to Firefox, but aside from that, my Plasma setup and everything else is compiled, tuned to my hardware, which is actually noticeable. I timed Strawberry chugging through my Music partition when added on various distros and Gentoo won the race handily. Plasma 5 sits at around 390MB initial RAM use according to ksysguard (still available!), and everything just feels a bit more snappy.
I know Gentoo doesn't get much attention these days, and it certainly isn't for everyone, but if you're looking to have even more fine-grained control over your system than most Linux already gives you, or if you want to squeeze the best performance out of your particular hardware it may be worth taking the plunge. Just be aware that there is work involved. If you can't update regularly, refuse to read notifications or do research, etc. it probably ain't for you. But if you're willing to learn and can follow instructions, you could soon be dazzled by walls of text fly by as gcc compiles itself. That one takes a while...
Installation is amazingly easy if you follow the wiki. In fact, compilation takes a long time, and despite choosing to use binary packages fully if possible, I installed the system in two evenings.
I encourage all intermediate Linux users to give it a try. If you know how to install the arch, void etc.. and know a little bit about the GNU/Linux structure it is not difficult.
Gentoo instead allows you a lot of control over the system, deciding how old packages you want to have. It is easy to compile the kernel thanks to genkernel tool. USE flags allow you to influence the functioning of your application.
The community is very welcoming both on matrix and irc channels.
Gentoo also allows a choice of openrc and systemd, as well as runit....
Rating 9/10 because things are not perfect and even gentoo has bugs.
my Gentoo journey has just started few months ago but I already have switched all my computers to Gentoo. It is amazing. Only one computer has dual boot with Void. Before I just did back-ups for files and if something crashed, I just re-installed the distro from .iso. Now if something doesn't work I know how to fix it. I absolutely love the way I could switch from Xorg to Wayland. I used to have a Cinnamon DE and now my laptop is running Hyprland. All is done inside terminal and it's so easy. No need to fight against the distro.
I've been running Gentoo Linux for the last 20 years almost exclusively on both servers and desktops. This is definitely not for everyone, and it's definitely not without pain, even after that much time. But if you want to learn about how Linux works, how to set it up from scratch, and if you want to be able to configure each and every aspect of a certain package rather than just using whatever the package maintainer thought might be the suitable configuration, then Gentoo is worth taking a look.
I've tried a whole bunch of other distros over the past two decades and admittedly it's tempting to just pop in a USB stick with Ubuntu and have your new machine up and running in minutes. But after a few hours I usually get frustrated enough to spend some time and install Gentoo.
These days, with support for binary packages in addition to source packages, you can choose to install certain packages (e.g. browsers) pre-compiled in order to save compilation time, especially on older machines (I'm still running Gentoo on an 12 year old MacBook Air — it's the same Gentoo install I put on there in 2012).
I have installed Gentoo with Gnome profile on my mac mini and I am very happy with both operating systems - modern linux distribution
and MacOS. Earlier I have been using linux distros supported by t2linux.org project but eventually I have chosen less complicates, and more direct solution. Now I am using rEFInder to select OS that I want to use at the moment. Installation was quite easy and fast, comparing to LFS. You just have to take care of details and follow installation guide. I can not believe how effective the system is in terms of speed and resource usage. With the full featured Gnome 45.2 the top command shows that about 500 MB memory is active. I have never seen such thing right after logged in, especially on MacOS :) With stable gnome desktop profile everything just works: bluetooth, driverless printing, wifi. A lot to learn yet, but at the moment working with Gentoo was pleasant and rewarding experience.
I've used Gentoo on and off for years, and it's definitely not for everyone, but I respect what they do and the immense amount of work (on theirs and the user's part) that goes into making it all work so well. Not easy, not quick, but the amazing thing is that it all pretty much works as advertised (everything does compile, eventually), and there is indeed a certain pride that comes when you first get your DE working, among other little milestones along the way.
I reinstalled Gentoo recently and discovered that they have an extremely nice live-DVD with Plasma and tons of tools that makes a great place from which to start the install process. I stayed in the chroot until I had all the KDE stuff I wanted, plus apps. Booted right up into SDDM!
You really need to follow the handbook, which could be more succinct but has all the necessary information. I found it helpful to use the binary kernel, at least for now, because the kernel building process can get complicated quickly. I also go with the Firefox binary provided by Mozilla rather than have to recompile every week or two.
Once you're done compiling, what you end up with is whatever you want, though not dramatically different from any other serious distro. So yeah, not for everyone, especially those with limited patience or time, but you will learn a lot. It's nice that there's a distro that fills the space between LFS and Arch.
The install process is intimidating, but once it is set up, maintaining Gentoo is easy. You only need to run two commands to update your system. The Handbook guides you through the whole process.
OpenRC is a great choice as an init system, as it balances speed and ease of use. However, systemd is an officially supported option if you want to use it.
The package manager, Portage is helpful and intuitive. It automatically applies any needed changes to config files when it can, but when it doesn't, it usually tells you what was wrong and what you need to do. When there's a dependency loop, Portage even gives you a possible solution on what you can do! There are also optional tools to make system maintence easier, like Gentoolkit, which includes the euse command to add and remove use flags without manually editing configs.
A lot of packages that I want to use are in a "testing phase", which means when you try to install them, Portage by default blocks them. This is easily fixable by either whitelisting the package you want, or globally adding the ~amd64 (or whatever your architecture is) keyword in your config, which is what I did. So far I experienced no problems with it.
However, there are quite a few packages I wanted that just weren't in the repos. Because of the flexibility of Gentoo, one could probably write their own Ebuild file for these packages, or search the GURU repository. The GURU repository is Gentoo's version of the "Arch User Repository".
As a Wayland user, having the ability to exclude X support is cool. For my usage, I exclude X globablly but specifically give support for the apps that need it, like Xwayland.
On my computer, programs compiled with Gentoo are more efficient with RAM. It makes me wish I could compile closed-source programs, but sadly I cannot :(
I started using Linux in 1998. When I first installed Gentoo many years later, I knew it is my best distro.
Pros:
- source based
- portage and emerge - the best package manager
- openRC - the best "init"
- USE flags and other fine tunings like possibility to switch to clang, etc
- freedom of choice
- community
Cons:
for me, really none.
It is the most difficult distro ever :), but this is the point :) I have a full control! For me, it is another advantage :)
Yes, I am biased :)
As for today, I can't imagine switching to another distro. Maybe to Arch + openRC or Debian + openRC, but really? I need emerge and sources :)
Cheers!
Among all the distributions I operate for different purposes, this is my #1 for my closest, personal machines since the last almost 20 years.
Part of the philosophy is to tailor your system to the essential needs and optimize for the envisaged tasks while keeping things simple and close to the original Linux spirit.
The cost is the time spent when installing/updating the packages, as you'll compile them - as long you don't go the binary way (and therefore skip the magic).
Compared to my 2nd love Debian Gentoo packages are much more up-to-date, but the system needs more care.
The best Linux distribution I have ever used.
Thanks to this distribution I really understood what I needed and what I didn't need on my system.
I am truly in control of what happens on my PCs, for better or for worse.
You can also understand the frustration of users used to installing binaries, but for those who want to learn and really understand a linux system and are not afraid to make mistakes this is the distribution that gives you the most. I hope it will never change and that it will always stay this way.
The customization works nice for me. I don't want systemd as init and openrc, for me, might be the main advantage that gentoo has over other distros.
Bein able to unconfigure (e.g. systemd-)dependencies wherever possible for all packages is a big plus.
Compiling the system over again every x days of course is a bit tedious but I guess you can't have one without the other.
My personal environment is very lightweight, so I don't use any Desktop Environments etc.; Luckily, for libreoffice there's a binary package, too. That leaves me with the main heavyweights llvm, firefox, rust and maybe clang that will take their time to compile. Basically, updating every 3 days overnight does the job for me.
I would not trade the flexibility and most important freedom of choice that gentoo offers for a quicker install of packages, so I'm good.
I also have to say that for now 10+ years, the rolling releases have cause little trouble for me. On some rare occasions I had to fix some reverse dependencies when updating in bigger intervals like 1 or 2 months. Apart from that, I feel like using the same config and system for over 10 years now quite reliably. Even to the point that I feel that my knowledge of system maintenance is fading because I never hve to bother with it.
I've been using Gentoo for just over half a year and it's been a mixed bag.
The good
--------------
USEflags are great, how streamlined kernel customization and upgrading is is also great. The repositories have quite a good range of packages. The community is relatively helpful compared to others. eselect for wine is quite nice. I love being able to choose between stable and testing/unstable on a per-package basis. The choice of init systems is excellent too, OpenRC has given me 0 issues compared to systemd which would often hang for ~2min on every shutdown or restart on Arch and Debian, struggling to terminate something.
The bad
-------------
Compiling every (mostly every, there binary versions of a scant few packages like firefox and thunderbird) is a chore. Yes, I can still do stuff while I'm updating, but I'm not sure the load on my CPU, my time, and the heat blasted into my house every time something like gcc or llvm needs updated is worth it. I'm happy to compile the things I actually care about and want to customize, but when simple dependencies take 15-30 minutes each in some cases, I dread updating. It prevents me from using some packages I otherwise would enjoy using, too. In some cases it's been a good thing, as it's pushed me to try alternatives (ie newsboat instead of akkregator or rssguard), in others it's just a pain. I quite like the Cinnamon desktop, for example, but if I wanted to use it, I would have to compile a second version of llvm, webkit gtk and spidermonkey which all have quite demanding compile times.
Back to the repositories, I have begun to get the impression that Gentoo is lacking in working hands. It's not rare to come across packages in the official repos that mysteriously are without a maintainer, and have been for some time. I've also come across packages I used relatively frequently on other distros being bugged on Gentoo. Both of these things are quite a shame, because at first Gentoo felt very polished, and getting away from a lack of polish was part of why I ditched Arch for it. But overall, at this point, Arch might actually be more polished.
I don't think this distro is worth the effort. In the future I'd like to see a distro that uses binaries by default but supports a USEflags-esque system for customizing and compiling the packages where I actually give a damn about them. Until then I will probably return to something that is less work and feels more supported in general, whether Arch or Debian (the next release of Debian in particular sounds excellent, but that is a few months away yet)
I have been using Gentoo since 2001 (pre-release). It has been great.
If you don't have time to keep it updated, it will bite you.
USE flags and masking are awesome. This lets you customize your OS to what you want and mostly keep out stuff you don't.
If you want something minimal and/or enjoy tweaking, this is for you. A year ago, I would have given it a 10. This is a change in me, not it in. Lately, I haven't been using my computer as often, so it has been become less of a joy. I should probably have installed stable this time.
Regarding stable vs unstable: If you are going to have many unstable packages, use unstable. It is more stable than mixing too much.
According to the official website of Gentoo Linux , LiveGUI USB Image is 2 GiB, as soon as you start downloading, you will notice that it's not 2 GiB.. but almost 3 GiB.
In the first impression, as if everything is very easy and cool, but the deeper you go, the worse it gets with this Linux distro.
I got a feeling that the "fathers" of this Linux distro love to play an awful puzzle with you: making things complicated, saying one and offering something completely different.
I think you should be a biiiig fan of this club, and otherwise, please think 100 times before you start with this Gentoo Linux.
Good grief this thing is horrible.
Once you get past the nauseating install process, it's ready to use... kinda sorta.
If you enjoy having to fix things on a regular basis, this distribution is for you. Guess their definition of stable is different than mine. You get your hardware to work only to have it unravel soon after.
Makes sense the popularity of this is soooooo low.
The installation it's a bit harder, but after the installation is very good to use, especially if you have ever use arch linux. Because, it's allow you to configure manually all over the system. The kernel, it's actually great, you can costumize the kernel likely what you want. The features it's actually okay for me, but i really happy because the kernel can costumized.
The installation it's really slow, and it's hard for beginners or newbie. So, it's not worth for student like me :(
But, it's not mean you don't have to use gentoo. Try installing and enjoy it, because gentoo it's actually good for learing operating system
I use Gentoo as my daily computer, mostly general purpose, a bit of gaming, some basic office uses. I've used a number of different distros but their package managers usually end up giving me issues. Dependencies get lost or confused, programs conflict with other programs, random errors here and there for no reason.
I haven't had these issues with portage and gentoo. Yes, its more complex to set up and to maintain and it requires some learning, but its fun and the wiki/handbook are an INCREDIBLE resource for linux all around, not just gentoo.
I utilize the stable branch, running xfce with nvidia and it's been golden. I don't see myself switching distros anytime soon.
Pros: For Advanced Users and Programmers/Devs
Unstable (~AMD64) is usable much like Arch
Highly configurable, can be lightweight if desired
Portage has many options and tools that you can use
Possible Cons: Not for newbies, has steep learning curve
Configuration files must be managed by user
Kernel must be managed by user
I use the unstable branch, similar to Arch IMO. Stable is very stable and much like Debian (stale IMO). I use the zen kernel. Hooks for portage are not well documented and vague, but I finally made one to auto update initramfs and update grub if nvidia-drivers gets updated. I am a rare gentoo user in that I use a lot of resource heavy software, like KDE Plasma, Virtualbox, Bottles, Systemd etc. Working with ebuilds and modifying your own is not well documented, i.e. ebuild manifest (or merge.) Takes a lot of digging to find out where to store and how to install an ebuild. Arch makes PKGBUILD a lot more friendly IMO. Compile times in RAM work faster than on disk. Overlays for things not in gentoo repos are fine but I prefer to copy the few I need to my local repo and modify the ebuilds to get newer versions, etc. Installing a rare git pkg from source or with python is sometimes necessary as Gentoo repos aren't the most robust.
Larger root partition is a must as a lot of libraries and build dependencies will be installed; it will need at least double the space of binary distro for root partition. All said, I am happy with it.
Not really the best distro for the average user. Most users with be happy with a binary distro like Arch, *ubuntus, Debian, or Fedora. Is it faster? No, not really. Does it work well? It can depending upon the skill of the user. Not a 10 as the documentation is lacking in many areas & definitely in need of a modern overhaul. Also, repos are thinner than other distros.
This is my first review, and I am not a very good reviewer, but since I like Gentoo so much I decided to leave a review on DistroWatch.
I am not professional, at all, and this review is probably poorly written.
But here we go:
I absolutely love Gentoo, and is the only Distribution I have used for awhile.
It's package manager, portage, is very flexible and probably is the best package manager I've ever used. However, the installation is a pain. You have to do the installation manually. The biggest flaw with Gentoo's installation (which can probably deter a lot of new users) is the compile time. It can take you hours. And even worse, errors that occur during your installation are an absolute pain.
My successful installation took me 8 Hours, not including my previous attempts. Granted, most of it was issues I never encountered the first time for some reason, but I decided to experiment a bit.
Here are a few issues I had:
Each time I try to install linux onto my hard-drive, grub MUST be installed using the removable flag. If I had not known that, I could have legitimately spent a few days stuck, most of it being the compile time. I tried using grub-install onto my boot partition, however, grub-install threw an error that could have caused me hours of re-installing. The message stated that I ran out of storage on my EFI Partition, and I thought that for a minute that somehow my 1 GB EFI Partition ran out of space. So, I deleted EVERYTHING in my boot partition and then installing the distribution kernel. After doing all that, the same exact issue happened. I eventually figured out that this issue actually was caused by me forgetting the "--removable" flag (as I stated earlier). If I didn't know the day earlier, I COULD have spent weeks figuring out the problem (I often completely restart the installation, assuming its my problem)
Second: I had was with the proprietary nvidia drivers. So after installing nvidia-drivers and upon rebooting, my computer froze at the fsck check. For some reason, nvidia HATES ttys, however, I didn't know it when I was recently installing it, so I completely started over from scratch, spending 8 additional hours before coming to the realization that it was the nvidia driver. So I assumed it had to be something with the kernel configuration, as this happens to every linux distribution I use, so I hatched a plan to complete this. First was to install xorg and all the xorg drivers (the nvidia drivers will be installed), and then KDE. After installing SDDM and setting it up, this plan worked which is why I am able to be writing this review at the very moment.
But after all of those issues, I still find myself ONLY wanting to use Gentoo. Yet, after hours of trouble, I still wanting to use Gentoo only. Most distributions I use, personally, aren't very stable. I feel like Gentoo somehow (after the trouble I went through to get it running) is quite stable. However, I would never do another re-install of Gentoo (this was a re-installation) until I have to.
Gentoo Linux is for smart people very customizable. Everything is compiled from sources and you can see the real dependencies so you can decide which useless features you disable in order not to pull unwanted packages
You can get fastest speeds for you specific cpu /gpu.
You can install multiple version of same package, multiple versions of llvm gcc compilers.
More easy to beef up security and disable unwanted /risky packages.
Easier port to new hardware,
They did not fall for systemd scam, offered alternatives from the start
Gentoo Linux is a great distro that is very customizable. Gentoo allows users to customize their kernel and packages installed onto their system. Gentoo also supports a variety of hardware architectures, allowing users freedom to choose their hardware. Gentoo can speed up an old system or low end system. Gentoo is also good for running a specific task, such as a game server, due to its lightweight design.
Gentoo does come with some difficulties, especially for new people. Gentoo's compile speed will depend solely on your hardware, this isn't Gentoo's fault as Gentoo allows you to compile packages from source, however, binary packages can be installed for large packages. Gentoo's repository is small, meaning that not many packages or up to date packages will be found. Gentoo can easily be broken, again not Gentoo's fault, but a warning for newbies who want to install Gentoo.
Gentoo does follow the "With great power comes great responsibility" philosophy, it is easy to break the system, however, if used right, can be a great experience. I personally wouldn't run Gentoo on a high end workstation, as compiling from source wouldn't show any noticeable performance improvements.
Portage is a truly beautiful package manager and Gentoo is fun to maintain. As others have experienced, the first installation was a bit tough for me, but the instructions are terrific and complete. Using a default kernel adds to the compiling time, detracts from the customization, but it does help to get your first system up and running, and you can return after to refining a custom kernel. The IRC community is very friendly and helpful. The system that I got out of it was fast, although a lot of RAM gets used while compiling certain programs relative to my old laptop's capacity.
I attempted to install Gentoo in a kvm where I use various flavors of linux with absolutely no problems. After 5 days, countless hours and probably at least 5 reinstall attempts I was finally able to get past the grub menu which is where it hung on the first 3 attempts. I saw other people having the same issue and the best advice on the forums was to read the manual, LOL. The documentation is lacking and seems to leave you hanging in several places; do I do this?, do I do that?, where do we go from here? then having to configure USE & CPU flags that dont really give you any guidance either. I was able chroot back in to the failed installs and went back through all the settings, etc which were correct then ended up deleting them and starting over carefully reading through the docs again and finally grub came up and was expecting a nice new gnome desktop and nothing but a cli. I went through dmesg and it booted clean so I started searching for more info and found a gnome page and went through that and thinking startx might work but nope, no go. I'm guessing there may be some settings that need to be added for vm's but who knows. Not sure if this will install on bare metal better than a vm and I may try it sometime but I dont recommend wasting your time with it, there are way better distros out there that can be up and running in less than 20 minutes. This is at best a "hobby" distro that should be used as a learning tool and not much else.
I've been using gentoo since 2008. I know is hard at first and the learning curve is slow but the community is super friendly. I guess even if you try installing it, you'll learn a lot about filesystems, kernels, GUI, etc.
I work on gentoo on my everyday machine, it's fast and smooth even though I've a 7 years old PC. Update takes it time, but hey! this is Linux, you always can schedule an update, stop it and start it whenever you have time to do so.
This is a rolling release distro, this means you don't have to reinstall everything because there is a new release nor lose your repo, I know this feature isn't very popular for server but for home PC users I feel it's lovely.
You want to use wayland, you can, you want to use xorg also you can, same for gnome, kde, xfce, or even a "deepin" beautiful base frame, systemd or not, the choice is yours, be free to feel it, whatever you want your gentoo could be, I guess this powerful freedom it's hard to manage, and you have to be quite brave to embrace it.
I want you to join us, be an spartan, be a gentoo user.
Gentoo fully embodies the opensource mindset: source is downloaded and compiled locally. The package manager (Portage/emerge) handles this smoothly: source files are downloaded from their respective repository, configured per your settings, and then compiled.
True, the performance gains over precompiled binaries aren't what they were 10-15 years ago, but the capabilities that become available are worth it. In a theoretical sense, this opens up ultimate security and customization.
Rebuilding my full install on 8 current-gen (2022) cores takes a good 5-6 hrs. That yields Openbox, Firefox, basic multimedia, and Steam games, among others. If you really want to break the mold, a few major apps are also offered in binary form (eg Libreoffice). Caution: it's not light on disk space (30+ gig for my root).
I update monthly, which can take up to an hour, depending on packages. Portage lets you set a "nice" value for the compiler calls, which keeps the system usable for light work. Updating systems with default configurations is generally as easy as using pacman or apt.
Though definitely not for beginners, documentation is generally well written and other outstanding doc efforts like Arch are applicable more often than not.
What you end up with is a system that can inherently build most anything. Want to test out the latest GPU drivers from Mesa git with an obscure branch of wine/DXVK? The tools are ready to go. This is streamlined, customizable opensource at a fundamental level.
Gentoo linux is clearly a distribution for someone who knows about linux, has some knowledge about console tools and understands what building from source means and works.
For me it is more than just linux.
It is a learning tool, because you have to dive deep into how things work and why.
It is fast, because you can fine tune every aspect, from the binaries to the configuration exactly as you like and for your own system (archtecture,cpu, graphics, etc)
It is secure, as you do not run any foreign binary in your system.
And on top of all it us fun!
I've been using Gentoo Linux for more than five years now as my main desktop environment with plasma both on my desktop pc and my laptop, and I can say with confidence that I will enjoy it for many years to come.
Gentoo is an incredible distribution: everything (well, almost...) comes
in source and gets compiled on your own machine, with your own settings.
Big packages like for example the kernel, Firefox, Chromium, etc. also
come in binary form for convenience. There are currently 19,800 packages
in the Gentoo repo and probably only a dozen or so are binary - wow.
Installation can take a few hours, depending on the speed of your pc and
whether you use a compiled kernel or not. Installation without reading
the documentation is impossible. However, after reading the Gentoo Handbook
carefully, installation is not that hard.
The main difference with other Linux distributions is Portage - Gentoo's
package management system. Most of your learning about Gentoo will probably
be about Portage and its seemingly unbounded flexibility and countless
features.
Beside customization, another good thing about Gentoo is security: when
updating the system the package manager tells you if your installation
is affected by any of the vulnerabilities recorded in the Gentoo database
(which gets updated regularly and promptly). I also like the Gentoo 'hardened'
profile and its full support for SELinux (btw, Gentoo's documentation on
SELinux is particularly clear and useful - probably one of the best that
I've come across).
To sum up: Gentoo comes with generally excellent documentation (some topics
are slightly outdated, although that is clearly stated). Expect to spend
half a day reading the Gentoo Handbook *in full* and installing the system.
After this, I think I needed another couple of days for properly 'digesting'
the material. But now I have a much better understanding of how Gentoo works
and have been able to customize it to my needs.
Gentoo is an amazing system - congrats to its developers!
The compile time is not worth the headache. Unless you have some very specific needs with regards to software, the kernel, or drivers, then this distro would be a waste of your time. There is a huge learning curve. You have to learn how to compile packages, configure a kernel, and setup all the packages in your system. You also will have to research and learn how to configure many of the config files on your system. This literally takes weeks if not months of research and trial and error. There is no noticeable speed improvement when compiling packages vs. using binary packages, so it is not rewarding with regards to how much time it takes to setup and maintain. If you are new to Linux, do not waste your time. If you have specific needs, love to tinker, have thousands of hours to waste and love compiling software for hours, then this distro is perfect for you. It is mainly ideal on severs that do not require a desktop GUI, such as a home file server.
Most distros offer a minimal install option with no desktop that can install in under ten minutes, which is the faster option.
The community and development team at Gentoo is very small compared to other distros. If you have a problem, expect to fix it yourself. Also, I think the documentation is out of date so be prepared for many things not to work without further troubleshooting.
What I find most fascinating about Gentoo is the possibility for you to build a unique system, designed, executed and customized exactly how you want it how you need it. No unnecessary trinkets, no services and daemons running in the background and consuming precious resources.
After a couple of years of trying, installing and reinstalling everything from scratch, I finally managed to put together a system that I consider to be perfect, that fully meets my needs, both on development and production platforms.
So, for these considerations, I consider Gentoo a special system, unique, light years away from the hundreds of "more of the same" distributions offered on blogs, websites and specialized publications.
Gentoo Linux is a rare and unconventional distribution.
I decided migrate to Gentoo from Fedora. I am truly amazed with Gentoo. I am using on my main machine, Lenovo notebook. 1400 packages and no compilations errors, it is impressive. I am using Steam, Libreoffice, Gnome Desktop, GIMP, Virt-manager, Flatpaks. Podman, Emacs, Firefox.
My only issue was with Podman. I used custom kernel and Gentoo documentation is outdated, but I could manage instalation.
It is better than Arch, of course it is my opinion. Gentoo is more stable, more cohese distro.
I think this distribution cannot be practically used on average because every time you try to install or upgrade it is going to be very slow. It is very ungreen program distribution technic. But it is not the worst. You should know how to configure Linux kernel exclusively to your machine. If you don't genkernel (the way to compile an universal kernel) is going to take several hours away on every update. Oh, I have just forgotten if you will try to update your system more then one time in day you are going to be banned for several days. It is crazy for source based distro. I had quited trying to install because precompiled kernel versions didn't run on my laptop and genkernel is not the way I can choose. Maybe if you have a very rare CPU architecture you will like Gentoo but many other distros have already been supporting ARM, for example, and I don't see any advantages in this solution. The FLAGs is the most crazy thing I have seen in all distribution I tried. If you haven't chosen functionality of your system during installation you cut off your abilities or new needs in programs you are going to install.
Gentoo is unique: no other distro makes it so easy to make huge changes to how everything works, and then have those changes continue to be maintained and supported across time, so that heavily customised systems can still be kept up-to-date as upstream packages evolve. You basically give it a recipe for how you want your system built, and then it builds it that way from source, continually following your instructions if it's able to do so, as packages are updated...or prompting you if things have changed so much that you need to change your recipe. The outcome of all this is that you (a) have much more control over how you want your system to work, and so of course (b) you have to invest much more time in designing and maintaining it.
As the project says itself, it's a "meta-distro": more like a set of tools for creating and maintaining your own distribution than a "distribution" in the normal sense (which involves particular selections of packages and configurations and so on). One person's Gentoo can look identical to an Ubuntu desktop, and have the same GNOME software and systemd and all the rest underneath it...another's can use a completely different init system and work with only the minimal software necessary to run a fast light window manager: it's like the kind of GUI customization that most Linux users do, only you do it with everything, from boot manager to desktop, even building your own custom kernels (the standard install procedure actually has you configuring your own kernel from scratch, choosing everything from the hardware and filesystems through to the timings and power management and so on). Obviously this is a nightmare for some people: for others it's a dream come true.
I would never recommend Gentoo to non-technical users who are just wanting to surf the Internet and listen to music and write emails and so on: there's just no point in building your own unique system if you're happy with what's already available. On the other hand for real geeks and control freaks who enjoy fine-tuning everything to their exact specifications, it doesn't really get any better than Gentoo. Of course Arch does things more quickly and easily, Slackware does things more predictably and reliably, there are more opportunities to do things entirely your own way with LFS, and so on and so on...but in terms of hitting the sweet spot between power to change stuff (everything is built from source and can be configured and/or patched to work differently) and ease of maintaining all that change (e.g. you can type a single command and have hundreds of packages rebuilt, removing their support for features you don't want and building in new support for features you do), it's hard to beat Gentoo.
I've given it 9/10 for what it is:it's a meta-distro, a framework for building your own distro however you like it, and enjoying official support for all that customisation. If it were trying to be an enterprise distro like Red Hat or a beginner-friendly distro like Ubuntu it would suck badly, of course...but Red Hat and Ubuntu already exist, so go use them if that's what you want: Gentoo is brilliant at what it's meant to be.
I've been using Gentoo since Corona gave me some more home office time.
I used to use RedHat (with Enterprise support) mainly for servers and Ubuntu for desktop clients. At home I chose Arch Linux.
Arch is really cool, but far too unstable for a serious working machine.
Now I've found my desktop and (private) server distribution with Gentoo. Gentoo is rock solid, fast and delivers very up to date packages.
In January of this year I switched most of our office workstations to Gentoo. With your own local bin-repo and distcc, updating at compile time is no longer a real problem.
Unfortunately Gentoo didn't have corporate support, so most of our servers are running Redhat.
I used to use Gentoo years ago. After years away, I decided to go back and give it a go. The distro supposedly supports systemd. However, the installation guide hasn't changed much in 15 years. There are some references to systemd and a link to the systemd page, but the install instructions are seriously lacking. The forums are sparse. It takes hours to compile the base system, even on 8 cores with -j6 enabled. The software is not bleeding edge unless you opt for testing in your make file. Supposedly it is about choice. . . the choice not to know what to do next it seems.
If you like to tinker around in the system and compile software all the time, this is for you. If you have a spare computer around it would be great. Otherwise, I find that anything you learn in Gentoo you can also learn in other distros, i.e. compile and install a kernel. At least someone who has done it before would be willing to document it in detail for you.
I will work on it when I get a few hours of spare time seems to be there motto here. This distro seems to be used by a core group of the same people who have been around for years and yet have no interest in making it less of a fishing expedition. I got it up and running but there were lots of issues. It is not straight forward by any means, even when following the handbook if you can even call it that.
Pros: you can install a light base system with out a lot of bloat if you are interested in a command line system such as for a server
Cons: too many to list, but primarily poorly documented outdated documentation, pitfalls and bugs galore
I would pass if I were you but if not don't say I didn't warn you.
Got into Gentoo since it was the only desktop OS at the time that supported amd64, never left. If you are not in a complete hurry (like 5mins before your presentation starts) Gentoo is the only distribution that is worth spending time with. Portage is on another level compared to all the other package managers and use flags are a dream come true. You can control and build your system and it will be as lightweight or heavyweight as you want. Not as someone else promises. It takes a bit of commitment but the learning and understanding Linux experience is well worth it.
Best distro ever, I've tried many but none of them are as customisable
The performance are awesome
The package manager is very well done. We can modify everything easily.
We almost always have the last version of software. The use of layman is also very good nice to have
We can easily have many different desktop environment. The system will calculate by itself what is required and will set all the package at the right version to keep consistency.
I also like the fact that it's a rolling release distro. This way we always have the last version of the distro.
I will always recommend this distro except for noob :)
The trick with source-based distros is to keep them lean!!!! That is why I do not have a full-blown desktop environment but instead use openbox as a standalone window manager with flatpaks and voila: it's a killer combo. I couldn't be happier ^_^. I do have Debian installed on my laptop as an alternative distro since it's the most stable binary based distro I've found and in a production environment, time is money. My heart truly belongs to Gentoo though. I highly recommend it to anyone who truly love Linux. You will not regret your choice.
As stated before, Gentoo is probably not for everyone. Better say, it is for everyone, but not for every use case. If you expect distribution that will run out-of-the-box with minimum hassle, it might frustrate you, because it won't. Probably because there is no "box" in the first place.
You are encouraged (and expected) to configure a lot of stuff yourself. Because, frankly there is no other way to run such flexible and customizable operating system. Also, speed benefits on modern day hardware are marginal compared to binary distributions. It does not mean that Gentoo isn't sleek and fast: it is. But I don't consider that a main advantage.
What makes Gentoo stand out is what it allows you to do. It allows you to take control of every single tiny aspekt of your OS. To customize every package as you compile and install it, leaving unnecessary code (and bugs) out. It allows you to learn a lot in the process and Gentoo community is very knowledgeable about what they do and maintain. So your questions will be answered in very detailed fashion.
It is an hobbist distro, but the work that developers do (in their free time) is astonishing. Gentoo have very professional and sophisticated community and if you put a little effort on your side you can benefit from it greatly.
So if you are interested in learning how linux works and take more control into your own hands, this is definetely distribution for you. But you should be also prepared to invest some time to install and maintain it. Once you do, things will became much less demanding over time.
ad. compiling time: Yes, compiling takes time, there is no way around it. But usually you can make use of distcc and offload the work to other computers in your network, speeding the things up considerably. Also saving your configuration files makes a lot of difference for any subsequent installations.
As an amateur of GNU/Linux, Gentoo has been a lodestone for me. Pre-configuring, compiling, and configuring every detail of a system is probably in-itself of marginal practical performance benefit for anybody who--like me--makes normal use of standard (in my case aging) hardware. Installing Gentoo takes time. It took me the better part of a week to get a fully stacked configured and customized system--three days to get a minimally functioning system with a custom kernel that were filled with reading and failure. If not for some downtime during the holidays during which I could devote myself to a little project, I would never have attempted it. When finally got a functioning system up and running with a custom kernel, fine-grained package control, and custom-compiled programs, the result was very satisfyingly slick!
Compiling can take hours, but this is somewhat of a chimera used to scare people away from Gentoo, and an excuse by those who failed. Windows managers like i3 and dwm don't take very long to compile. Once you have the basics of the system in place, you can easily compile away on the bigger programs out of sight and mind in another tty or workspace.
Portage is a marvel! It calculates dependencies making use of your own global, and customized package-specific flags, and then suggests configuration modifications your you to proceed with downloading, compiling and installing the source code. Installation is more detailed and takes far more manual intervention than with binary distributions--whether you consider this to be a positive or a negative is a good litmus test for whether Gentoo is the right tool for you. You can be confident that you will not be left alone in dependency hell, but you will need to manage dependencies with portage's help.
I installed my system in 2021 on an Thinkpad T440s with Intel I5-4200U-Haswell processor (2013 release), 140G SSD, 8G RAM (from which I allocate a ZRAM tempfs for compiling).
Gentoo lets you customize your system with USE flags and a custom kernel. Gentoo gives you a lot of customization and allows you to build your own system. There are some binary packages including the kernel, however, majority of the packages are source based. Gentoo definitely requires Linux experience and is not for new users to Linux. Gentoo is geared towards a technical audience.
Pros:
Custom packages
Extremely optimized
Customization
No systemd (a pro for some)
Cons:
Compiling can take a long time depending on your hardware.
Despite being lightweight and customizable, gaming on this distro is slower compared to other distros even with mesa installed.
A few packages are still outdated, for example, Java.
It took me 3 days to get a working system on a i3-10th gen Intel CPU with 8 GB of ram. I got a system with DWM and it uses around 200MB on idle.
Gentoo is not for everyone. You have to spend a lot of time and it is a steep learning curve. It needs most decent hardware if you want to use a big DE like KDE or GNOME. It takes a lot of time to build software like Chrome, Qtwebengine. Therefor most expereinced binary distro users will not like it and it is not for these use cases.
If you like micro management and want to have every aspect of your hardware configured. And you like slim and suckless software, and secure software just by enabling or disabling USE flags, and want to learn much about linux and software and have time for this. Then gentoo is definitely for you.
I am gentoo user since more than a decade, and I personally dislike the long build times on big software packages like Chrome. Some packages have binaryies in portage some do not. Get a new CPU or distribute compiling over other nodes to shorten build times.
You have to compile everything, which most likely takes days, it is pretty unfriendly because of that. System resource usage is a bit, the gnome and xfce desktop environments are slow and bloated and full of applications I don’t need to or care to use.
This is the best to control everyting whereas GAFAM are control the world.
This is the fastest I ever used (instead of compiling ;P)
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