Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

osric reviewed v2008.0 on Jul 7, 2008

emerge your world!!!

Tene reviewed v2007.0 on May 8, 2007

Very easy to configure, very easy to maintain, very easy to adapt!

maxkit reviewed v2007.0 on May 8, 2007

Personally I prefer FreeBSD, but I have been working with Gentoo for a long time.

This is the best Linux system - you can choose what and how to compile, not just use packages with "default" options compiled by distributor. You always have a choice using Gentoo Linux.

I think, previous complain about "serious disto" meant a "quick distro" :-)

Yes, Gentoo takes more time to install, but after that it works like a charm, and you always can have what *you* want, not what has been chosen by someone for you.

hondaman reviewed v2007.0 on May 8, 2007

Not a bad distro if you have lots of time to waste. And I mean LOTS! Clearly a geeks distro. If you want a serious distro, dont waste your time here.

robmanic44 reviewed v2007.0 on May 8, 2007

If you're a real linux geek this is what you want. Gentoo has the power to make your system sing. Definitely not for amateurs. I had this running my old server, but it consumed a great deal of my time. This is truly mind-blowing.

luminoso reviewed v2007.0 on May 8, 2007

I love it!!

Frostek reviewed v2006.1 on Sep 2, 2006

An interesting distribution aimed at the more technical user.

W@KK0 reviewed v2006.1 on Sep 1, 2006

The persons mocking this distro obviously doesn't know how to RTFM when it comes to using Gentoo. You never have to worry about dependancies with Gentoo. Take some time and read about "emerge".
http://learn.clemsonlinux.org/wiki/Gentoo:emerge

Gentoo is probably not for the average joe and it can be very tedious to install. However, if you want to get a streamlined as you can, preventing any crap from ever getting on your system that you don't ever use, this is a distribution that most definitely can get you there.

As for Vista? Vista is just a rip off of MacOX... It would be nice if Microsoft could actually come out with an original product... oh wait they did, it was called Bob... and it died miserably. Anyhow...

AlexBR1974 reviewed v2006.1 on Sep 1, 2006

Go Vista!!!!!

x86 reviewed v2006.1 on Sep 1, 2006

Gentoo isn´t for production use, the system is using alle memory for updating portage and compile aplications which is not good. Gentoo is nothing else than a toy for bored people, most gentoo users dont know how to use linux, they know how to install it... they spend 90% of the time looking on apps compiling..

Thumbs down...

tannenwheel reviewed v2006.1 on Sep 1, 2006

i tried several distros (debian,knoppix,mandrake,ubuntu,more) but used to dislike them, cause they left me at best with a working but unknown kde or gnome desktop. boring and unpersonal! the process of installing gentoo was the best linux lesson for me. it was much fun to build the system up, piece by piece, get to now the startup process in detail, learning to understand that font vs unicode crap... it took me two days for setting up the core, then five days to install "all" windowsmanagers (pekwm.org rules them) & other basic stuff and to find my favourites among them, then i felt smart enough to recompile an optimzed kernell (with crapy third pary NTFS writing support) - compiling stuff is much more easy than it sounds. i'd never want to try another distro now.

unfortunately i had to stop using linux because the fun of it does not compensate for the serious lack of good linux applications (not a gentoo issue, gentoo is compatible to (approximately) all linux apps, afaik).

TomekLutel reviewed v2006.1 on Aug 31, 2006

After 7 years experience with linux servers (RedHat, Slack, Debian) I must admit Gentoo is the best distro for servers. With portage you can go back to server after year, and in one day make it 100% up to date. Its security (hardened profile of toolchain, kernel, php and others), speed (each build is optimized for your platform), and stability (had no issues since 3 years of using it) are unbeatable. I dont know how good it is as desktop system, as a matter a fact I dont think ANY linux distribution is good for desktop.

Mark Gillespie reviewed v2006.1 on Aug 31, 2006

fair_is_fair, Gentoo is a source distribution, and has many advantages over Redhat, Fedora, Suse and the like, as you only compile the features and/or packages you need, and everything is compiled optimised for YOUR CPU, not a generic i386 which Fedora and the like still use.

Gentoo is not for everyone. It takes a long time to get up and running (typically 24hours downloading and compiling), but the results are worth the effort.

tacc reviewed v2006.0 on Feb 27, 2006

Best Linux distro for (there is a for) -at least slightly- experienced people who want control on their os and don't want to be assaulted by dozens of scripts for any basic task.
Very clean, very updateable, very customizable.

Hey ! In fact that's not a distro, that's a LFS (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org) with some excellent features like portage. But I like it. A lot.

fair_is_fair reviewed v2005.0 on Mar 29, 2005

I agree with the last guy. Gentoo is not ready for the masses. In fact, Gentoo is a royal pain. Who wants to wait for an hour while a browser is downloaded and installed? This is just nuts. I tried to upgrade my system and I ended up with so many errors and etc problems I had to scrub and start over with another flavour of linux. Stay away from this unless you have loads of patience and time to kill because you will need it.
Gentoo is kind of a flawed Debian wannabe. If you are newer to linux or if you are familiar with Redhat or Mandrake, try one of the Debian offsprings like Mepis, Kanotix, and Ubuntu. These linux operating systems just work.

Mark Gillespie reviewed v2004.3 on Nov 15, 2004

Great OS, but as with all Linux distributions, it's not ready for the big time. Only consider Linux if you are comfortable with command-line configuration and very basic tools.

Only consider Gentoo Linux if you have the time to invest, if you do however, the payoffs are worth it. I have Gentoo running on a MiniITX PC as a general purpose server doing samba\ftp\apache\netjuke\popfile and many other tasks, and it simply works..

Also bear in mind as you are compiling the entire operating from source, it's gonna take a while to compile (mine took 24hrs for a very basic setup), and unless you have the source CD's you need a broadband connection to get all the packages down.

matosale reviewed v1.4 on Aug 6, 2003

i was using gentoo for a long time, but the compiling time is just anoying...i love it, but if i hace to wait 12 hours to get openoffice...better i install Debian (in fact...i have Debian)

Zulithe reviewed v1.4 on Aug 6, 2003

Gentoo is an excellent Linux distribution. Especially 1.4, which has been in development for a long time (If I remember correctly it was *supposed* to launch at *last year's* Linux expo, but instead launched this year, anyway it was worth the wait) Gentoo won't necessarily be as easy (or as fast) to install as Red Hat or Mandrake, but since it is designed for speed based on your architecture (and linked libraries) it probably will show a noticable speed difference on your system. 1.4 is now even easier to install than previous versions, and comes with documentation on the CD, if you can read and follow directions you should be able to get through it.

verbatim73 reviewed v1.4 on Aug 6, 2003

I'd like to point out that contrary to netean's post, you don't have to know anything about c++ or assembly to setup gentoo. With the 1.4 release you also don't have to wait for hours for everything to compile if you wish not to, it ships with binary packages. I think it's a great linux distribution.

netean reviewed v1.4 on Aug 6, 2003

gentoo is a great idea: build a system that's exactly tailored to you needs. DO play with Gentoo if: a- You have a very very fast computer and loads of spare time waiting for things to compile b- You're a seriously geeky nerd who loves the idea of c++ and assembly. DO NOT play with Gentoo if you are "normal" in any way. It's not just Linux (as if that weren't stupidly complicated enough) but it's also way geeky Linux (if such a thing is possible)