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Gentoo Package Management with Portage

Gentoo Package Management with Portage

Posted Jun 10, 2004 3:38 UTC (Thu) by yodermk (subscriber, #3803)
In reply to: Gentoo Package Management with Portage by piman
Parent article: Gentoo Package Management with Portage

Actually, I found Gentoo's installation and configuration documentation truly excellent, almost something by which other distributions and open source packages should be judged. It does take some editing files, but the docs should make it easy for just about anyone, if they set their mind to it a bit.

Another reason to be put off by Debian is the ancientness of the packages. Sure, there's "testing" and "unstable," but with Gentoo you can decide to run "testing" or "unstable" programs on a package by package basis. In Debian, to get one unstable program, you have to pull in the unstable glibc, which is scary on a production server. Since Gentoo compiles on the fly, that isn't a problem.

Sorry to sound like a fanatic, but Gentoo really *is* the best thing since sliced bread. :)


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Gentoo Package Management with Portage

Posted Jun 10, 2004 7:00 UTC (Thu) by piman (subscriber, #8957) [Link]

Gentoo's documentation may be excellent, but so is Debian's. If a user is going to be scared off by Debian's install, they will also be scared off by Gentoo's. I just don't see the point of mentioning Debian's installation process in an article about package management tools.

Gentoo Package Management with Portage

Posted Jun 11, 2004 1:19 UTC (Fri) by yodermk (subscriber, #3803) [Link]

I dunno -- I've done some with Debian also, and frankly, I thought Gentoo was easier.

Gentoo Package Management with Portage

Posted Jun 21, 2004 21:58 UTC (Mon) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link]

I think this was true, once upon a time.
Debian has too many paths to installation (and everything else) to make any of them well trodden enough to be absolutely streamlined. However, the new installer for sarge really makes things simple.

Me? I use debootstrap for the one command install.

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