Redcore Linux Proves Gentoo Doesn't Have To Be Difficult 

Agreed. I distro hopped for 6 years before settling on Gentoo in 2003 and I have been here ever since. Yes, it's a steep learning curve to take it on and I am still learning new things on it today, but, for me, it was worth it.

I do use Gentoo and I like it, but I wouldn't call it "easy". Try for example to install Steam and enjoy all the dependency hell you have to go through. Especially if you didn't install your system with a 32 bit support in the beginning. I agree though it has a really great and supportive community and a very good documentation. My main reason for using it though is that I can automate easily builds of packages that are not in repositories thanks to the ebuilds. Portage is an amazing package manager.

@@fisyr You are putting words into the mouths of others and then arguing against them. Where did anyone describe Gentoo as "easy"? The thumbnail says "Redcore Makes Gentoo Easy" which, by implication, means Gentoo could be considered "hard" for some people. Please stay on topic.

I have seen someone livestream a gentoo install once. He was a skilled experienced Linux user and had a complete Gentoo expert with all the answers on voice chat. He had to restart multiple times, and it was the most obtuse and insanely complicated thing I have ever seen done on a computer. And then you are apparently left with a OS where you cannot even change the DE after installation because it is considered so much more complicated than even the installation that you just reinstall at that point.

@@wisnoskij That's not my experience - from scratch build I can have a PC booting up to a console login prompt within a couple of hours at most, the time consuming part is waiting for the kernel to compile. But I have also been using Gentoo for almost 20 years anyway. Ultimately, it either works for or it doesn't - there's a steep learning curve to overcome before you get proficient with it and if you're not willing to put in that time and effort, then use something else.

"-it uses binary packages and not source packages, updating is just slow because portage normally doesn't install binary packages and isn't good at it." Yes, but when your end PC compiles those source packages, it can store them as binary packages that other PCs in your environment can download and use, provided that that architectures and USE flags are pretty much identical.

@@terrydaktyllus1320 Redcore linux has its own fully independent repository of binary packages and several mirrors of it, I don't have any other gentoo PCs in my enviroment, all of the software is downloaded from the repos

@@multicat2742 If it works for you, so be it. I've been with Gentoo for almost 20 years now so that works for me too.

I don't understand, uses binary packages ? As in, it doesn't compile ? Why is it based and touted like Gentoo then ? I feel it totally misses the point. Not in a bad way, but in a "has nothing to do with" way. Also, why the hell was updating so slow then ?

@@Winnetou17 300+ packages is still a lot and portage just isn't made with binary packages in mind (like the ones redcore uses), besides you can always still compile from source, but if you want to quickly install something its much more convenient

>boy oh boy I'm impatient Understandable. Source-based distros make my stomach hurt. ;)

I treat Gentoo as "Linux that runs on any old cr*p" and that's one of the main reasons that I use it because I stopped AAA gaming after 2010 and now buy all my hardware used, except for storage. That means that being the "cheapskate" that I am, I can have multiple types of one machine at home (especially as I am a bit of a collector of old IBM and Lenovo Thinkpads that I repair and refurbish). This means that one machine can be compiling in the corner whilst I am using the other - even better, machine 1 can be compiling and then building binary packages that machine 2 can just retrieve from machine 1 and install rapidly.

@@terrydaktyllus1320 but running it on everything is not the best thing with the building from source part try to install it on a duo core pc from 10 years ago it will take weeks

@@linuxstreamer8910 That's entirely your opinion, I just think you're wrong. I explained above how I get over that scenario that you believe exists, go read that comment again. Nothing takes "weeks" to compile, you're not going to even think about installing, say, Google Chrome on a Thinkpad T22 with a Pentium III CPU in it and 512MB RAM anyway. I think you're just repeating what "a bloke in the pub" told you without knowing yourself how things actually work in Gentoo - it is important to understand how you can optimise compilation, which you can in a number of ways, before you make comments on it. I could care less whether you or anyone else uses Gentoo, it works for me - but I like people to speak from a position of fact, rather than speculation and silly "memes".

@@terrydaktyllus1320 weeks was a extreme but for gentoo you need to have more patience then with let's say ubuntu

I've compiled electron in the past and it took about that long.. on an i9. 5Ghz×16threads. Do not compile chromium from source.

Bigger packages in Gentoo can usually be installed as direct binary packages, Chrome is one of those. Personally, I loathe the web so I find it difficult to get "passionate" about web browsers and optimising them (as I would with other applications in Gentoo) - as long as the browser "just works", it's good enough with the binary packaged version.

There is a binary package available for Firefox, brave etc. you do not need to compile them.

Its precompiled with precompiled packages in the repos

Sisyphus GUI

I daily drove it for about 2 weeks (with proprietary nvidia) and it was quite good.

😂😆🤣

If you don't have enough energy and time to overcoming a steep learning curve with Gentoo intially then don't use it. I have been using it since 2003, the rewards come later on when you understand how it works and know how you can make shortcuts to make installation times much quicker. It is a rolling distro for people who like optimisation and customisation - I call it "the engineer's distro".

set commit interval to 10 minutes.

Do you mean "WINE"? The same "WINE" that works perfectly fine under X?

You can enable flatpak support on Gentoo also.

@@terrydaktyllus1320 Yeah but in that distribution if you run some games kicks me in to login screen. But if change to Wayland runs ok.

@@buuf456 I don't get that experience in X but if Wayland fixes it for you then so be it.

It's entirely your decision to make. All I can do is speak from my own experience. I started using Linux back in 1997 and I spent 6 years distro hopping - Slackware -> SuSE -> Mandrake -> Red Hat -> Linux From Scratch -> and ended up on Gentoo in 2003 where I have been ever since. I would suggest to anyone who, like me, had distro hopped for years, then that may be an indication that the only kind of Linux that is ever going to make you happy is one you build yourself - whether you use LFS or Gentoo to do it. But to make that jump, you have to be prepared to take your Linux skills to the next level and be prepared to face a steep learning curve and finding some patience.

@@terrydaktyllus1320 out of curiosity what Desktop environment/Window Manager did you use back then?

@@someguy4853 Mainly GNOME 2. I use KDE 3.5 (?) for a short while on SuSE, but always preferred GNOME back then.

@@terrydaktyllus1320 didn't realize Gnome 2 was around that long, definitely one of the best DE of all time.

@@someguy4853 I stand slightly corrected - GNOME 2 was released in 2002 but I don't remember using anything other than GNOME back as far as 1997, so it must have been GNOME 1 then. Yes, it was a great DE - the only slight annoyance was it was very wasteful of screen real estate - too much whitespace.

Do you mean an installation GUI or the GUI that you would use for a desktop within a Gentoo installation?

@@terrydaktyllus1320 the iso that comes with a desktop

​@@goobleboops8868 its only the installer

So you've actually used Gentoo and/or Redcore to be able to form those opinions from a position of knowledge, yes? Because I also use Gentoo on "beefy workstations" and everything from there down to a Raspberry Pi Zero. Yes, compilation can take some time BUT if you multiple machines of similar architecture, then it is perfectly possible to have one of them sat in a corner doing its compiling, and while it is doing so have it create its own binary packages from those compilations such that other machines can grab their updates from there instead, and complete the update process in a much shorter timescale. I would suggest that if you had any ACTUAL knowledge of Gentoo then you would have known about this feature - as well as "distcc" that allow distributed compilation over a network and simply altering the "MAKEOPTS" flag that allows you to assign the number of CPU cores to a compilation task that means you can even continue to use the machine while its updating, because you only assign some of the CPU load to the task.

@@terrydaktyllus1320 there is no answer to the question of why would that be better over binary packages in repositories like AUR? I suppose, this adds another level of trust, when the binary you get is compiled right here?

@@sealoftime I don't use Arch much, I don't have an issue with it (or any Linux distro). But I do read complaints, a lot from Arch users, about dependency issues and systems not booting after an update - no, I don't believe that happens very often. If that happens in Gentoo, then it's usually because of user error. Yes, you do get problems with upgrades in Gentoo, especially if a system has not been upgraded in a long time, but they almost always happen before you start the upgrade - for example, you can have "circular dependencies" which means you might have to mask some packages temporarily to kick the upgrade off, and then unmask them again to continue the upgrade. You also have the opportunity to recompile every application that uses a new library version by recompiling against that new library - yes, it increases compilation time but does make a far more stable system.

@@terrydaktyllus1320 same thing honestly in arch. It's usually people, who do not read patch notes and the mailing list. Arch just makes it more tempting to remain oblivious on what was updated imo

@@terrydaktyllus1320 No, I couldn't even get it to compile. It took ages and it still didn't work. But I know that even on good computers, there are some packages that take a lot of time to compile.

Very high customisation and optimisation. You start off by building a system that boots to a console only with a minumum number of applications installled and then decide from that point where you want to go in terms of a desktop environment, if you install one at all. Gentoo supports amd64, x86, arm and arm64 architectures (which are the ones I personally use) but it also support mips, ia64, sparc and a few others. For me personally, it means I can build similar Linux environments on anything from a Raspberry Pi Zero to a multi-CPU Xeon workstation. It also means that I can build Gentoo on "any old cr*p" computer and end up with a very functional computing environment.

I need it to be Gentoo because I want to build my own Linux distro appropriate to the platform that I plan to run it on - amd64, x86, arm, arm64 are the ones I run Gentoo on personally, but it also supports RISC, MIPS, Alpha, SPARC and a few others I can't remember the names of. I did use some Arch until they completely abandoned the x86 32-bit version.

@@terrydaktyllus1320 But you know how to build it right? What i'm asking is if it benefits someone who doesn't know how to build it? For example in arch, new archinstall scripts benefits people because you can benefit from using arch (like using aur etc) even if you don't know how to install it and take a shortcut for installation. But in gentoo, if you don't know how to build and know certain things about linux system, just making the installation easy (like redcore does) doesn't really benefit people, because you need to know things to use gentoo too, if you don't know those things, you can use an other distro, it doesn't have to be specifically gentoo for those kind of people.

@@denizkendirci I consider that I have an "engineer's brain" and Gentoo appeals to that type of brain. I can pick up a Raspberry Pi Zero or a multi-CPU Xeon server and know that I can build a Linux environment on both that, within reason, works identically across both of them. I can also take "any old cr*p" hardware, install Gentoo on it and put it to some use. For example, I have a Thinkpad T22 that is 20 years old now with a Pentium III CPU and 512MB RAM that I dig out a couple of times a month to SSH onto my home server to write BASH programs whilst having my email open in mutt in a second window and playing music in a third window - it has a great keyboard and I totally lose myself in a very quiet and "old fashioned" way of doing computing without constantly being badgered by alerts and pop-ups.

@@terrydaktyllus1320yeah that's what i was talking about, you are advanced enough user. you can install gentoo, you don't need redcore. (You may choose redcore, if you want to skip long installation process, but you don't need it) with arch it's a little bit different though, people who aren't advanced enough to install arch "the right way", they can still benefit from using specifically arch, like installing endeavour os, and they can use aur etc. Is there benefit from using specifically gentoo for people who aren't advanced enough to install gentoo? If not, what is the point of redcore (specifically making the gentoo installation easier)?

@@denizkendirci I can't answer the question because I don't use that many other distros. I've messed around with Arch, I've no problem with it but I'd still rather use Gentoo. I've built Ubuntu and Mint systems for friends and family getting into Linux, I've no problem with those either - but for me, I still prefer Gentoo. My day job is entirely on Red Hat servers but I wouldn't choose to run Red Hat at home. I know people complain occasionally of instability and dependency issues in Arch and other distros, you don't really get that in Gentoo because you compile what you need from new each time. Where you do encounter problems are with "circular dependencies" which stop you upgrading before you do it, rather than letting you upgrade and then breaking the system. Those sometimes take some effort to resolve, mainly around temporarily masking some packages to let an initial upgrade run take place, and then unmasking them for a second upgrade run. I do think people that distro hop a lot are the ones not getting enough satisfaction from Linux and might therefore be ready to do their own builds in Gentoo - but if you're happy with what you're using, then keep using it.

Wait until the hardcore Gentoo elitists find out the truth 😅

"Memes" are for people within "the hive mind" that can only repeat "clever" sayings made by other people. "Gentoo" is for individuals.

@@ArniesTech People that use the word "elitist" are just jealous of those who have put in a lot of time and effort to learn what they know - it's simply putting a negative connotation on the word "expert" to drag those people down to the level of that person. If someone else's knowledge antagonises you, then the problem is yours, not theirs. We all started off knowing nothing - the only difference between "novice" and "expert" is how much time and effort is put in for getting from the former to the latter.

@@terrydaktyllus1320 in my book, an expert is somebody who has knowledge and experience. An elitist is somebody who makes judgements based on that and put others down. I was actually referring to elitists, not experts.

@@ArniesTech So me, as an expert in a topic, is not allowed to make a judgement on someone else as to how much they may or may not already know about a topic? So how do training courses work then? As someone who has written and delivered both TCP/IP networking and Linux courses at work, I am "elitist" if I judge my class of attendees before I start in order to steer my training towards what they don't know? How does anyone ever get a job from a job interview if the interviewers are not allowed to assess the candidate's suitability for the role? I think you are making excuses.

Calculate has configuration templating.

I can't get it to install. I can't even get to a live environment. Just errors out with "plasma failed to load". Hard to review a distro with those kinds of problems.

> Redcore Linux Proves Gentoo Doesn't Have To Be Difficult > Spends 45 seconds because of messing up his virt drivers

That was a "me" problem. For someone reason, virt-manager decided to change the video driver that I typically use in my VMs. Once I selected the correct driver, all was good.

I think the problem because there are only 3 mirrors in the world for Redcore, US, UK, Russia

Do you want him dead?

There are two types of people in this world - those willing to put in time and effort to turn something "hard" into something "much easier", and those who are not, and may therefore need to make alternative choices.

Not quite

Not quite

No that's Red Star OS.

Close. Romanian. lol

That was a "me" problem. For someone reason, virt-manager decided to change the video driver that I typically use in my VMs. Once I selected the correct driver, all was good.

Absolutely none.

all of the advantages you get with gentoo over ubuntu apply there, such as building applications from source if that's something you'd like.

If someone is coming from mint/ubuntu to gentoo then oh boy...

@@nikoraasu6929 Have a look at r/gentoo, someone recently installed Gentoo as their very first foray into Linux. Took 'em 4 months mind.

@@fenrir7969 I respect anyone just "diving in at the deep end" with Gentoo and I am not surprised that orientation took that person 4 months. Gentoo is my "OS of choice" and it's not until you've got over the initial steep learning curve that you start to appreciate the design methodologies of Gentoo.