Re: [gentoo-user] Re: can one tell me: gentoo vs opensuse

[Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>]

On Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:16:19 +0100
Alex Schuster <wonko@wonkology.org> wrote:

> > No flames from me.  I agree.  I wouldn't recommend Gentoo to
> > someone who has no, or even very little, Linux experience.  Looking
> > back, I was one heck of a noob when I installed Gentoo.  It had to
> > be fools luck that I got it done.  Then again, the docs were, and
> > still are, really good. You can dang near copy and paste the
> > commands.  
> 
> I know some people who had very few experience with Linux. But they
> succeeded in installing Gentoo. And they learnt a lot by doing so. If
> you installed Gentoo, you know Linux.

I think we all know at least one person like that. Myself, I've
trained more than just a few (the training salesperson had a knack for
signing up people who had the smarts to cope with Gentoo).

But for every one like that, there are at least 10 more that can't, and
so often in this game I find that others are just not able to spot those
10. And worse, the 10 often give up and go back to Windows.

So the question is not really "can the user do it?", it is rather "how
will *this* person in front of me right now be best served?"

An equally good question is "does this person right now asking me a
question have what it takes to dive into Gentoo blindly, and swim?"

The answers to those questions are what should guide you.

> That's what I like about Gentoo. You know what you are doing, and many
> integral parts are easier to understand than with another distro,
> where things are hidden by GUI config tools.

Precisely, which is why RedHat is great for a Windows sysadmin who
really does want a plug-n-play distro.

Debian is great for people who want to tinker safely - you get the
plug-n-play of a binary distro and you also get build tools that don't
explode in your face every time you try do something that is not
exactly 100% TheTrueRedHatWay.

> But if you just want to have a Linux to play around with, go with a
> binary distro. You can install Gentoo later if you like, even while
> using the Linux you already have. If you have some space onthe disk to
> add other partitions. Did I mention yet that LVM is nice for this?

Don't forget VirtualBox/VMWare/KVM/Xen and everything else like them :-)



-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com