[gentoo-dev] Re: [user] Why you use Gentoo

[reader@newsguy.com]

Unlike many linux users I started with linux and had to learn windows
later.  In both cases I was already an `old man'.  On my fiftieth
birthday in 1996, I started with Redhat linux somewhere in the 3X
version area.

I stumbled and plunged, plunged and stumbled all the way up to now.
And here 10 yrs later am still capable of asking dead stupid
questions.

It may not show too much but I have learned hugely along the way.
I finally tired of redhat (by then it was the fedora branch) and had
tried quite a few others along the way,

Slackware, Debian were really the only two `others' for quite a
while but then I tried mandrake and suse too.

Always returning to redhat/fedora in the end for the simple fact I
knew it best.

So none of the others held enough draw for me to drop redhat/fedora.
Until I met Gentoo.  About 1 1/2 yrs ago now.

It wasn't love at first boot as many here have reported but by then I
was tired of the need to basically reinstall every few mnths or face
the dependancy hell people have mentioned that can arise in rpm
systems.  

I bounced back and forth for a few wks until I finally learned enough
to keep my gentoo system up and have some confidence I knew how to
upgrade etc.

Unlike some posters here I haven't noticed that this list is really
much different than the old redhat now fedora lists.  Only to say that
the old redhat lists seemed to have more real experts than the later
Fedora branch lists.

But both were incredibly helpfull too.  This list follows a long linux
tradition of being very helpful to new and not so new users.  Gentoo
lists may well be setting the high water mark in having a high
`real experts' ratio.

The only real breach I ever noticed in that tradition was Debian lists
which (Putting on asbestos drawers now)  are very snotty and have a
religious zealot overtone not found elsewhere.

And now finally getting to the point:  In a brief summary one might
say:

  emerge -u world

and all the emerge jobs in between when needing specific tools.  That
is, the emerge/portage system is really a well rounded, and robust
software managing tool.





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