061001 Terry Eck wrote: > Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. > I will give gentoo a try to see how it goes. > my first experience with linux was around 1994 using Slackware 1.2.0. > Back then it was common to configure and compile the kernel for sound.
You really should have no problem with Gentoo with that experience ! You've had a lot of generally sensible advice while I've been asleep (smile). I installed Gentoo exactly 3 yrs ago & have never had regrets or problems. Read the installation guide & the manual carefully before you start, have printed copies at hand & follow to the letter what they say. Avoid the GUI installer, which is not a finished product yet. I did a Stage-3 GRP install, which gives you binaries to get started. After that, it's upto you how often you update packages: I do 'eix-sync' every Sat to get the list of what's available, check the nice colored list of what's changed during the week, then 'emerge' those which seem to be worthwhile. There are 3 levels of reliability: 'x86' (or whatever your platform is) has become something like Debian 'stable', ie rather conservative; '~x86' sb useable, but perhaps not for basic system items when new; 'hard-masked' is only for people willing to test buggy stuff. My compiling get done on a separate KDE desktop, while I do other things: Open Office takes 6 hr (overnight), but there is a binary, if you want it; a middle-sized set of KDE pkgs takes perhaps 3,5 hr ; otherwise, the longest compiles are c 1 hr (my CPU is an AMD 2500+). Gentoo is for people who want to manage their own boxes: you will need to edit configure files, but they're very well annotated. You should have a reasonably fast CPU , >= 512 MB memory & broadband, tho' some hardy people seem to run Gentoo with smaller resources. Let us all know what happens ! -- ========================,,============================================ SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb : [EMAIL PROTECTED] ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Centre for Urban & Community Studies TRANSIT `-O----------O---' University of Toronto -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
