From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1MFnTC-0002KB-9e for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:01:50 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 48E78E0629; Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:01:49 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-ew0-f224.google.com (mail-ew0-f224.google.com [209.85.219.224]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E4408E0629 for ; Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:01:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: by ewy24 with SMTP id 24so398422ewy.34 for ; Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:01:48 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:reply-to :user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=WuD3A3qbYhjeTGDsBvc0Ok6qYjANPnNe7pVu96C+4IA=; b=dU3Neg9YTQvTTJpCrtuCYEDkZc003Qd8m793RZVTCkWGsltI+d3v4ZvRlKA7+t6Lxp tae5IFrEq76eSyTRoE5ViLPg3TAGU2Sh/8MWzb2cm7GxYWH8Kgcx/KRO2yDa6gmOvJgS PmKlzN7eKHK401hZERYkiDe0ynkuJPotO5PK8= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:reply-to:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=V1y0NmrjJjVKz5NBws+xhlwKasXtgABii1ePhH6nBB1VyD/cby9FwHyczJYEBbtfvn 1c6eWNP/Us36sNDyl4emiwVHeOPGTxh02E5AEC602T7SrEjZ7v6bKufKbTnPo6DBlKnU wHKpEOLFBTvFYFM8CiRhizGuv/mxp5UfLlMYg= Received: by 10.210.82.2 with SMTP id f2mr2377118ebb.66.1244977308363; Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:01:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ?192.168.1.40? (78-105-132-248.zone3.bethere.co.uk [78.105.132.248]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 5sm1603855eyf.8.2009.06.14.04.01.47 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:01:48 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4A34D8DA.5010902@gmail.com> Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:02:50 +0100 From: AG User-Agent: Mozilla-Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (X11/20090103) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: [gentoo-user] Basic queries regarding installation from an outsider looking in Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: e15bdc86-78a5-46dc-9cd2-55d045658f81 X-Archives-Hash: 679ba72c8d3c78239b5372268979c0cc Hi all Thanks for the responses to my earlier query regarding co-location of Debian and Gentoo on the same HDD. I still have a few questions regarding an installation before I take the plunge: (1) Looking through the background docs, it occurs to me that if I wanted to install Gentoo on my system, I would need access to a second machine that is running all of the on-line docs that guide one through the installation process. Is this correct? If not, how does one refer to the (seemingly quite comprehensive) guidelines whilst in the middle of an installation? (2) When Gentoo installs its libraries, does this duplicate the libraries already on my machine? For instance - if I have OOo and KDE and Xfce4 loaded as part of my Debian Squeeze system, will Gentoo also install its own version of OOo, KDE and Xfce4 alongside the Deb files? I was thinking that this would have a number of implications in terms of space and (potentially) in how the drive is partitioned for the Gentoo installation ... unless I'm missing the point? (3) What differences would I likely experience between running my Debian installation and the Gentoo installation? After all, up to a certain point GNU/Linux is GNU/Linux, and if I configured all the bells and whistles the same way as I have currently got them set up (i.e. preferred WM, desktop settings, applications, email and Net preferences, etc.), I'm not sure there would be any ostensible distinction between the two. Hence, my question refers really to the more subtle differences between the two systems which one only picks up on after a while of using it. For example, the last time I used Mandriva (when it was still called Mandrake), it was chunky and locked down, a FOSS version of Windows really, but the same applications were in use as were on my ol' trusty workhorse Slackware 8.1 through 10.1. It was just in the latter that nothing would happen in Slack without my having been involved directly or indirectly in making it happen. I appreciate that many distros tend to not have the bare bones approach that Slack does, but this is really just to try to illustrate what I am getting at: the subtleties experienced by a user of the system. Any installation commitment will have to wait for a couple of weeks yet though: I'm in the process of completing my MSc thesis and need to keep a stable environment for the time being, so will look at taking this on in a few weeks. This is thus background research - a bit of a reconnaissance mission, so to speak. Any thoughts/ shared experiences would be welcome ... unless there is another, more appropriate forum for these kinds of experiences to be shared/ discussed. Many thanks all. Best wishes AG