Sabayon?

[exploder]

Sabayon is an interesting distribution they have something for everyone and the artwork is nearly always good. You can learn something from any distribution though. No matter who packages it or develops it, it is all Linux. I have learned a lot out of necessity. A good example is when you want a newer package to fix a bug and the package is not available, you read a how to and compile the package from source yourself.I compiled a new kernel for my system once because I wanted a feature it had. There are "How To's" for just about anything you can imagine.

Gentoo itself is a very hands on distribution, you compile everything from source yourself. If you have a whole lot of time on your hands Gentoo might be worth investigating. Gentoo provides a satisfaction from doing things yourself. The down side is doing things yourself is very time consuming and figuring out dependencies might get complicated at times. I recommenced that you purchase some rewritable disks when funds become available. I completely understand what you are saying about being short on funds! I am there with you my friend!

Luckily, you can learn anything that interests you without spending a dime! A good resource to learn is the Ubuntu forum, there are lots of "How To's"" there. For that matter, there are some good "How To's" right here on this forum. You have what it takes to be successful with Linux because you are interested in learning and are not expecting things to be like Windows. I look forward to reading more posts from you.

[exploder]

Sorry for this additional post, server errors gave me a double post again!

[viking777]

I used Sabayon for a while and I liked it, they had a particularly friendly and helpful forum. However I stopped using it mainly because it is (or was) a DVD only distro coupled with some of the slowest servers in the world. This meant that to download it took something like 36 hours (on a fast adsl system) and if, after completing that, you then find out that the download is corrupt and have to do it again, it tends to get annoying. They suggest of course that you try and download it by bit torrent. I did that and after setting up the torrent and leaving it for several hours to stabilise I went back to to it to find that it was going to take 5 days to complete!! That was when I decided that Sabayon was not for me.

Also if you are a newb as you suggest then attempting to start off with any variation of Gentoo is crazy. I had been using Linux exclusively for 2 years before I started on Sabayon and I found it difficult - I still haven't dared use Gentoo. (perhaps that is just me though!).

[Zwopper]

Install Virtualbox and try them all!!!

[exploder]

Install Virtualbox and try them all!!!

Zwopper, has the right idea!

[exploder]

Alright, thank you for the replies. I will continue to learn all I can, and when I have a good amount of knowledge I will try it with Virtualbox.

I have learned more from all of the screw ups I have made over the years! Also, when I first became interested in computers my step brother gave me this advice. "It's only software." I never forgot those words!

[FedoraRefugee]

I would like to add that while Sabayon did not particularly appeal to me it is a fine distro to play with. I would also add that I think anyone with the right frame of mind could take on Gentoo despite not having extensive Linux knowledge. The cool thing about Gentoo is the documentation available. The online manual is the place to start. You still do not want to try installing from the live CD, it is totally borked and very rarely will it succeed. However, building an install up from stage 3 will usually work the first time. You do not have to worry about details such as usage flags to start and Gentoo now offers many binary packages of the most common apps that helps speed things up a bit. Be warned though that Gentoo is not the distro for those who like to install and uninstall lots of apps. It is intended to be more static, set it and forget it. It is not an easy distro to learn but it really isnt that hard either. It just requires careful reading and the attention to do things exactly as instructed. You would learn a ton just by doing the install.

[AK Dave]

Gentoo has excellent documentation if you intend to install up from stage 3, as fedorarefugee says. Excellent documentation. Its pretty much cookbook in approach. But I don't recommend it for the casual user who may want to try this and try that. The apt-get approach used by Ubuntu and derivatives is extremely robust and also easy to use. Don't always see that combination.

Gentoo's roll-your-own approach means that you install everything yourself largely from source, compiling as you go, but in some cases you might install precompiled binaries. But the nightmare of "solving dependancies" isn't nearly as fiddly as one might think, since Gentoo's documentation is solid. You just walk down the checklist and do what the instructions say to do, and it gets done. And done right, I might add.

Gentoo is not for someone who wants to see how AbiWord works, compare it with something else (Openoffice), and then uninstall the one you don't like later on. Just ... don't bother. But it does allow you to install what you want, exactly what you want, and only what you want, with every binary compiled and optimized for your hardware and your kernel and your specifications.

Do this once and you'll really appreciate binary installers, repositories, apt-get, and liveCD distros.

I think Gentoo is great to play with in Virtualbox. Awesome place for Gentoo. You have your solid, stable, live Mint install. With Virtualbox. And Gentoo growing like a little baby inside it. Its like playing Spore, only Linux style. You get to watch your little baby grow bigger and stronger with your help and guidance until she is ready to reach out on her own and pipe X to a secondary monitor. It'll bring a tear to your eye when you realize you're a daddy, your little girl is all grown up now, and she wants to marry the Xbox.

[NoClue!]

I think Gentoo is great to play with in Virtualbox. Awesome place for Gentoo. You have your solid, stable, live Mint install. With Virtualbox. And Gentoo growing like a little baby inside it. Its like playing Spore, only Linux style. You get to watch your little baby grow bigger and stronger with your help and guidance until she is ready to reach out on her own and pipe X to a secondary monitor. It'll bring a tear to your eye when you realize you're a daddy, your little girl is all grown up now, and she wants to marry the Xbox.

Thats funny. Is the delivery painful? How long is Gentoo gestation?

When all is said and done. What is the advantage of a Gentoo install? I have to admit, I never gave it a thought.

[Fred]

NoClue!,

I used Gentoo for several years. Learning to use Gentoo will give you a firm foundation in Linux. It is not a distro for lazy, casual users. If you want to really learn the ins and outs of Linux this is the distro for you. Having said that, it can be made into just about anything you want it to be. Flexibility is the key word here. The closest thing I can think of to Gentoo is the traditional Slackware. Neither are beginners distros, unless you have the time and inclination to work hard and learn.

Fred

[NoClue!]

My relationship with linux is approaching the two year mark. Right now Mint is where I need to be. I don't really have time to explore the purists distros. Maybe in a few years I'll become a Gentool or a Slackaholic.

[Ookami]

I've been using it on and off since version 2, and I think it's pretty nice. It's come a long way since its Beryl days.