Ubuntu VS. Gentoo

[BMW2000z]

Hello,

Like many others, I've tried linux before (the usual suspects...suse, red hat, mandrake) but have always gone back to windows. In the past 8 months, windows has failed me twice causing me to lose major amounts of unbacked-up data. Thus i decided that while i have a 2 week break, i will make the jump for good. I have a suse 9.3 pro cd, and am really tempted to install it. However, from talking to some linux-using friends, and also from reading lots of stuff online, gentoo or ubuntu seems the way to go.

There are several things that are important:
1. easy installatio of programs
2. easy uninstallation of programs
3. i can use my ATI AIW card to watch tv
4. i can use my ipod shuffle
5. i can keep this OS for ever and not have to ever worry about formatting and switching OS again.

Based on that, do you guys think i should go with ubuntu or gentoo? If neither, feel free to suggest alternatives.

 

[sourceninja]

I dont think your ati AiW card will work, it requires some MS only stuff to watch tv. Now the ati tv wonder cards do work.

I love gentoo, but you dont sound like you have enough linux exp to pull it off. So stick with ubuntu.

 

[phisrow]

One thing, whichever one you choose, is to be sure to put your /home directory on a seperate partition. The beauty of *nix is its widespread use of text config files, which actually persist between installs reasonably well. If you put /home on a seperate partition, your files and some of your settings will be durable between installs if you ever wish or need to reinstall your OS.

As for which one to choose: Both Ubuntu and Gentoo are known for having pretty good package management. It will not be like Windows(this is a good thing, though people often find it a bit of an adjustment at first) neither distro is a good one to choose if you just want to be able to run random binaries from the internet. Both depend on a large collection of software packaged specifically for them. Ubuntu uses Debian's Apt system. Quite easy to use, lots of packages to choose from. Gentoo uses its own portage. This is slower, because the package gets compiled right then and there; but no more difficult to use(assuming you don't go too far down the dark path of the tweaker). Both are also not bad to install, in their own way. Ubuntu, by default, is a really easy install that asks a few simple questions and dumps you right into a set of fairly sane defaults. Gentoo makes you take every step of the way yourself; but it has good documentation for this process. It will take considerably longer, though. Your choice.

Either distro will have effectively the same support for hardware. Ipod support is a userland thing, and pretty easy. GTKpod, Amarok, and others all support Ipods, and I'm sure there are others. Any problems you have here will be trivially solvable by googling. I don't know as much about the AIW; but since the kernel is the same, support will be about the same. Distros do differ in their ability to make things "just work" but all have pretty much the same theoretical limit to what they will support, imposed by the Linux driver scene.

Either distro will have a decent resistance to having to be reformatted too often. Gentoo has point releases; but it really just continually evolves forward. If you don't hose anything, your install just creeps continually towards the future. Ubuntu follows a strategy of releases every six months, with just security and bug updates inbetween(though you can enable backports, to get program updates that don't involve serious changes); but it is relatively simple and well documented to upgrade at these point releases.

 

[nweaver]

after using both, I would tell you Ubuntu. Gentoo is great, but Ubuntu is easy(ier). Gentoo's strength is tweakage factor and control. They also have answers to almost ANY question you have in the WIKI or forums (they have seen it all). Ubuntu is based on debian, possibly one of the better distro's around (imho) and dumps you to an easy to use box, that only requires a few tweaks to get stuff like win32 codecs and such.

 

[n0cmonkey]

First you should consider backing up more frequently and finding out why your installs keep getting hosed.