Gentoo Linux

Reader supplied reviews for Gentoo Linux Average rating 8.6 from 76 review(s) What are your thoughts on Gentoo Linux? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- unstablestable20160514201408262012122112.112.011.211.010.12008.02007.02006.12006.02005.12005.02004.32004.22004.12004.01.41.21.1a1.0 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: stable Rating: 10 Date: 2025-05-18 Votes: 12 Gentoo is honestly one of those distros that just clicks if you're the kind of person who loves tweaking and control. The level of customizibility is insane- you basically build your system from the ground up, only adding what you actually want, just how I love to call Gentoo is technically just like LEGO. No random background junk eating up RAM or disk space. It’s like building a PC, but for your OS. The out of the box Gentoo bash color profile is one thing I fell love in with at first look, this purplish-blue + green truly resembles something UFO-ey in it, which I got used to instantly :D Also the portage eyecandy can be turned on, and you'll see a nice colorful fancy query progress as portage does magic when you're about to install/update somethin' USE flags are probably my favorite part and is a godsend. You can fine-tune features on a per-package basis. Don’t want some package pulling in X or Qt or PulseAudio? Just flip the flag off and recompile. It's super clean once you get the hang of it. Portage too. Like yeah it’s slower than apt or pacman, but it feels a lot smarter. You see exactly what’s being pulled in and why. It just makes sense and feels less opaque compared to other package managers. Logs are also actually readable, which is rare these days lol. The learning curve can be steep at first, but you pick up so much along the way. You’ll end up understanding how init systems work, how kernel modules load, what compiler flags do, and just generally how Linux fits together under the hood. Gentoo doesn’t hide anything, and that’s a good thing if you're curious. And the community is full of ppl who really know what they’re doing, you'll def get help if you ask. The wiki and handbook are also top-tier - seriously, better than most distros. As per their FAQ wiki: "Do not confuse rolling release with bleeding edge. Gentoo updates may be fast-paced, but Gentoo is a stable distribution, with exceptional reliability. All packages are fully tested, and must meet high standards. Quality control is a fundamental priority for the project at large." Stable but bleeding edge? Yes please! And what’s cool is you can actually balance stability and cutting-edge pretty well. Stick to stable if you want to chill, or go "unstable" if you want newer stuff (but even unstable is more stable than distros calling themselves stable). Or unmask just the one bleeding-edge package you want, super easy to do. Once you get used to this kind of power, it’s hard to go back to other distros that lock things down more. It’s kinda addictive. Gentoo isn’t just a distro, it’s a whole mindset. Gentoo’s docs deserve way more credit than they get. The Handbook is probably one of the best step-by-step Linux guides out there, period. It doesn't just tell you what to do, but also why,which helps a ton if you're trying to actually learn stuff instead of just copy-pasting commands. And the wiki? Super clear, well-maintained, and actually focused on Gentoo stuff. Not like Arch’s wiki which feels kinda chaotic half the time,like a huge pile of user notes slapped together, often outdated or assuming you already know the answer. Gentoo’s docs feel like someone actually sat down and cared about explaining things properly. On top of that, the community is very welcoming and friendly, especially for a “hardcore” distro. The forums are super helpful if you put in some effort, and people don’t usually act all elitist or gatekeepy. You won’t get roasted for asking a question like you might on some other distro forums lol. Same goes for the IRC channels,people there actually know their stuff and will point you in the right direction without being arrogant about it. That combination of strong, clear docs and a chill, knowledgable community really makes Gentoo stand out. It’s not just a distro for tinkering,it’s one where you actually learn and feel like you’re part of something built by people who care. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: stable Rating: 1 Date: 2025-05-15 Votes: 2 Could be better. Don't get me wrong, I love the philosophy of Gentoo, and I truly respect the customizability of it. I did my best, gave multiple chances multiple times to prove myself wrong about it, but I just can't rate this distro to 10, but only 1. The reason is, the installation procedure of it, which imho essential of how a user feels about their OS afterwards (feeling safe and ready to use it, or feel anxious whether it's properly set up or not...) "But..." - Yeah, I know, I know - THE Handbook. Yes, it's a wonderful thing to have a handbook, but a handbook is only good until it has it's point. For example: I want to installed Gentoo with selected profile: Plasma. The handbook nowhere near mentions that it doesn't automatically mean I'm going to have Plasma desktop, and I do have to install it separately. I did my best to find any mentions about it within the guide, but to no avail.... The other thing is the redundancy and the extra energy of care one needs to put into it: for the init I was installing what Gentoo was suggesting (openRC) and in UEFI mode. Now, in the rest of the guide, I kept seeing: "if you have set up openRC vs if you have set up systemd" or "if you UEFI vs if you LEGACY" then proceed this and that section etc-etc. No, just no! Why do I have to keep re-reading things that I didn't picked? There should be a button in the very beginning, letting users pick an option, and the guide would tailor itself to it, removing irrelevant sections of it. But my favorite part was the kernel installing chaos: For the whole time, I thought the Handbook is linear, but it turned out it's parallel. What I mean by this is, when I was the install kernel section, there were so many confusing sections, that it wasn't clear whether to use "installkernel" or "kernel-gentoo-bin" so I kept zigzagging on the page, and had to use Google to look for answers, which one to pick, when it turned out that the two are totally separate from each other, and actually needs to install both, however "installkernel" wasn't detailed enough in the handbook, so it led me to another page (new tab in my browser next to the many) where I could read more details about the installkernel, but hey, even on that page was another link that brought me even further into this madness. A handbook, should be linear! Not parallel! A handbook needs to be clear to follow, and not enforcing users to constantly go on off-road "adventures". For example, imho, those details which led to separate pages could also be improved by a mouse hover explanation tooltip, which would let me know in a nutshell, what is where, and where is how - you get my point. But definitely not a clickable link, that redirects me to countless of other pages. In the end of the day, I was able to manage to install Gentoo in a VM, just to see how it would go: terribly. I was welcomed with a basic shell, where I logged in with the root account, and could do some stuffs, but then I realized that the DE was not even installed. So I was like, okay, install plasma-meta package (roughly 117 packages) - 30mins have passed in the install procedure, and it was still installing the 3rd package (source based distro, I get it, but still....) - Then I decided to interrupt this whole procedure, and remove the VM. At this point, I realized this isn't worth my time or nerves anymore. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: stable Rating: 10 Date: 2025-05-13 Votes: 13 Gentoo is hands-down one of the most rewarding Linux distros I’ve ever used. Diving into it felt like unlocking a superpower—total control over my system. The Portage package manager is a gem; I love how I can tweak every build with USE flags to get exactly the software I want, optimized for my hardware. Compiling from source takes time, sure, but the performance boost is noticeable, especially for resource-hungry apps like my video editing suite. My aging laptop feels snappier than ever. The flexibility is unreal. Want a minimalist setup? Done. Need a beefy server? Gentoo’s got you. I built a custom desktop environment with just the components I love, and it’s so lightweight I forget I’m running a full OS sometimes. The documentation is a lifesaver— the Gentoo Handbook is like a wise mentor, guiding you through every step. Even when I hit snags, the community on forums and IRC was super welcoming, always ready with tips or a quick fix. What really shines is the learning experience. Gentoo taught me more about Linux internals than years of distro-hopping ever did. Tweaking kernel configs and mastering systemd felt like earning a black belt in sysadmin skills. It’s not just an OS; it’s a journey that makes you a better techie. If you’ve got the patience, Gentoo’s a love letter to tinkerers. I’m hooked for life. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 76 reader reviews of Gentoo Linux...