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I'm a big Gentoo fan, and if you've used BSD's ports you'll like Gentoo's portage

by tmm1 19y ago

sspencer 19y ago
Seconding this option. Gentoo is the way to go if you are used to BSD.
BrandonM 19y ago
Another benefit of Gentoo is the wealth of knowledge you'll find at http://gentoo-wiki.com http://gentoo-wiki.com and http://forums.gentoo.org http://forums.gentoo.org . Additionally, the portage system makes everything rather easy to do, once you get the hang of how it all works. Is a certain version of a library causing a problem in a program? Just mask that specific version and run a single command to re-install to a different version of the library and update all programs that depend on it. I started with FreeBSD and switched to Linux when I couldn't get proper drivers. I didn't like Ubuntu or Debian, but I've been quite happy with Gentoo, and I'm getting ready to put it on my third computer.
Elfan 19y ago
The author didn't specify how large his project was. If it involves a lot of servers then Gentoo's ability to basically "make your own distro" could prove very useful. You can't get much more flexible than that. Since the OP is coming from a BSD background that is an advantage for Gentoo as well. On the other hand if the project just involves a small number of servers than Gentoo will likely prove more hassle than it is worth. In that case the conventional wisdom would be Debian. (or RHEL if you want to pay someone for support).
qaexl 19y ago
I'm also a big Gentoo fan. I never used BSDs much, though I imagine you would be familiar with the following: - With Gentoo you would be able to setup masks for a specific version of glibc and compile everything against it, stage the binaries and distribute them en mass to the other systems. This would allow you to stay with a specific version of a library and less dependent on the whims of the distro staff. - You also have the option of using a cluster of compilers to compile the packages, though you may not want your production machines to be a part of the cluster. - You have control over the CPU optimization flags. - You have control over package features. This is the equivalent of turning them on or off with ./configure --enable-xxxx, but it is abstracted away into USE flags. - Each package is downloaded from upstream, sometimes with Gentoo-specific patches applied to them. In otherwords, you have access to pristine sources as the authors intended. - You can also define an "overlay" so you can write your own custom ebuilds, should you have specific patches you want to apply to any or all of the packages - You can use the overlay to do an internal release of your proprietary software using Portage. You can define package dependencies with your proprietary software. It is a lot more work than setting up a Debian or an Ubuntu box, but you also get more control.

I'm a big Gentoo fan, and if you've used BSD's ports you'll like Gentoo's portage

by tmm1 19y ago

I'm a big Gentoo fan, and if you've used BSD's ports you'll like Gentoo's portage

sspencer 19y ago

Seconding this option. Gentoo is the way to go if you are used to BSD.

BrandonM 19y ago

Another benefit of Gentoo is the wealth of knowledge you'll find at http://gentoo-wiki.com http://gentoo-wiki.com and http://forums.gentoo.org http://forums.gentoo.org . Additionally, the portage system makes everything rather easy to do, once you get the hang of how it all works. Is a certain version of a library causing a problem in a program? Just mask that specific version and run a single command to re-install to a different version of the library and update all programs that depend on it. I started with FreeBSD and switched to Linux when I couldn't get proper drivers. I didn't like Ubuntu or Debian, but I've been quite happy with Gentoo, and I'm getting ready to put it on my third computer.

Elfan 19y ago

The author didn't specify how large his project was. If it involves a lot of servers then Gentoo's ability to basically "make your own distro" could prove very useful. You can't get much more flexible than that. Since the OP is coming from a BSD background that is an advantage for Gentoo as well. On the other hand if the project just involves a small number of servers than Gentoo will likely prove more hassle than it is worth. In that case the conventional wisdom would be Debian. (or RHEL if you want to pay someone for support).

qaexl 19y ago

I'm also a big Gentoo fan. I never used BSDs much, though I imagine you would be familiar with the following: - With Gentoo you would be able to setup masks for a specific version of glibc and compile everything against it, stage the binaries and distribute them en mass to the other systems. This would allow you to stay with a specific version of a library and less dependent on the whims of the distro staff. - You also have the option of using a cluster of compilers to compile the packages, though you may not want your production machines to be a part of the cluster. - You have control over the CPU optimization flags. - You have control over package features. This is the equivalent of turning them on or off with ./configure --enable-xxxx, but it is abstracted away into USE flags. - Each package is downloaded from upstream, sometimes with Gentoo-specific patches applied to them. In otherwords, you have access to pristine sources as the authors intended. - You can also define an "overlay" so you can write your own custom ebuilds, should you have specific patches you want to apply to any or all of the packages - You can use the overlay to do an internal release of your proprietary software using Portage. You can define package dependencies with your proprietary software. It is a lot more work than setting up a Debian or an Ubuntu box, but you also get more control.