Linux, by any other name…

I have recently started playing around with Gentoo Linux. Gentoo is a fairly new Linux distribution that has gained quite a following, and for good reason. While not for the Linux newbie, it is certainly cool for those who are looking for a customized system without the hassle of rolling their own.

For example, I wanted a simple system that could serve as a file server/web development platform. I didn’t need all the flashy GUIs, media players, and cute games that seem to infest most distros. So I popped in the Gentoo CD, installed the base system, and started adding packages as I saw fit. Only a bare minimum of packages are in the base install. My only complaint is that for some reason they decided to include nano instead of the defacto vi as the default text editor. What’s up with that? But even in the installation itself, you can customize things like the text editor and such.

Gentoo’s biggest asset is the portage system. Portage is a package manager similar to the BSD ports or Debian’s apt-get. I have used the BSD ports system before and I find that portage is even better. Portage allows you to install from source or precompiled binaries. And you can forget about the “dependency hell” of RPM, portage handles it all automatically.

Another great point about Gentoo is it’s compact and well laid out infrastructure. On many other distros I find that configuration files and binaries are scattered all over the place with little logic. In Gentoo everything is easy to find and in its proper place.

While I am still a bit leary about trying Gentoo on the desktop, I would certainly recommend it to anyone who has a little Linux knowledge and a need for a simple, easy to maintain system that just works.