Gentoo Linux

The Gentoo Linux operating system (pronounced /’d??ntu?/) is a Linux distribution based on the Portage package management system. Portage is also the name of Gentoo’s default package management utility. This package provides, among other useful scripts, the emerge utility, which is written in Python and can be used by privileged users to easily inspect and alter the set of installed packages on a Gentoo operating system. Gentoo Linux is a unique GNU/Linux distribution that compiles all of its software from source code rather than using precompiled binary packages. A faster init system known as initng is available and under active development on the Gentoo forums. Gentoo is arranged much like FreeBSD, except it has command line tools that automate all of the special functions that must be done by hand in FreeBSD. Installation of Gentoo can be completed by following the Gentoo Handbook. Additionally, several other methods of installation are listed in the Alternative Installation Method HOWTO; most of which are targeted at experienced users or users unable to boot from the Gentoo live CD.

Once Gentoo is installed, it becomes “versionless“, that is, once an emerge update is done, the system is at the latest version. Bleeding edge packages by regularly syncing their portage tree, Gentoo users are able to use the most up to date packages available, rather than remaining fixed at a particular release date. This is also a drawback, when updating a Gentoo system, no guarantees are made on the backwards-compatibility of any package updates, whereas distributions which only make a limited release set of packages available are able to better maintain compatibility within each release. Because of all this, Gentoo can be useful for code developers because they can make a full install with the full code on their servers (for example revision servers) using a single command.

Gentoo is thus able to offer a greater variety of compile-time package options where other popular distributions are not. Gentoo package management is designed to be modular, portable, easy to maintain, flexible, and optimized for the user’s machine. Gentoo startup scripts use the runscript shell interpreter, rather than a more traditional shell.
Gentoo is primarily criticized for its long installation process, sometimes taking days on older hardware, especially very large ones such as X11 and OpenOffice. Having said that, working with Gentoo is a great learning experience and one is rewarded with much knowledge and insight into how various parts of Linux come together to work in a way it is supposed to and a wealth of information on minute details of each and every configuration option in the packages.

You don’t upgrade Gentoo by downloading the new release, writing it to a CD or DVD, and then installing it over the old one. Instead you simply use Gentoo’s built-in tools to upgrade the OS little by little at intervals of your choosing. All of this — and everything else that has to do with system administration — is done from the command line, so if you don’t have a very good understanding of the CLI now, you will by the time you’re through with a complete installation and configuration of Gentoo. Gentoo is all about choice and customization.