Gentoo Linux is a high-performance ports-based Linux metadistribution for x86-based systems. Gentoo Linux 1.0 has finally been released. You’ll find install instructions and ISOs and build tarballs (and on mirrors soon). Gentoo Linux is said to be the “fastest” Linux distribution to date, incorporating patches that make it extremely responsive. It is mostly aiming at developers though, as its installation procedure is definately not for newbies. Gentoo uses Portage as its package system, which is a mix of Debian’s apt-get and FreeBSD’s ports system, incorporating the good points of both technologies.
Gentoo Linux 1.0 Released
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Eugenia Loli
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The installation guide is very well written. It makes me want to give Gentoo Linux a try even though I’m perfectly happy with my current distro.
Its not like linux isnt portable, why not make it available to other architectures? The only 2 linux distros that i’ve seen officially support the Alpha are Debian and RedHat, i would like to see more of them, and Gentoo actually sounds like a not bad idea. Of course a ports system is only really useful if i you have a system that is capable of compiling faster than one could write the zeros and ones himself. I find it a cool idea none-the-less.
actually it can use precompiled builds as well with the emerge –usepkg command.
and I must say that is quite good
the iso doesn’t work in Bochs 1.4
I guess I’ll just have to wait until I can get my hands on some ISO or they make a floppy distro (oh wait a minute.. I don’t have a floppy ..).
It does look cool though!
If you downloaded the “standard” Gentoo ISOs, which are 586-upwards, you need to re-compile Bochs to support the Pentium instructions needed. I suggest you download the 60-day trial of VMWare 3.1 and try to install Gentoo on VMWare.
On the other hand, why try run Gentoo on an emulator/runtime? Gentoo’s best feature is speed, which is something you lose and can’t witness when running it under an emulator anyway.
As for a burner, I suggest this CD-RW/DVD combo drive:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=82&page=Intro (costs less than $95 USD)
It is definately not the fastest in the market, but it is a combo drive (so you can re-write CDs and also have full DVD support) and it has a good price.
What distro is this based on? Or is it “hand” written?
It is “hand written.” It is a souce-based distro anyway.
I forget the syntax but I’m sure you could find it on google. If you are already running Linux you could download the iso and mount them directly from your hard drive. It is possible to install Gentoo from within your current distro. Check out the docs on Gentoo.org and the mailing list archives.