Debian or Gentoo


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I feel like installing another distro but which one should i use? Debian or Gentoo? I've already got Slackware installed and running fine. Which one would i learn more from? Should i put this on VMware or should i make a new partition for it?

Edited by nivek7
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gentoo is closer to slackware in my opinion. However slackware is a very good learning tool. However both debian and gentoo are too. I have never actually tried debian, but from personal experience I know that gentoo is a very good distro. However both gentoo and debian are usually run with the ability to resolve dependencies for you, while slackware usually isn't. From that perspective slackware is the best tool to learn linux. I have learned the most from using slackware.

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hmm... i guess i might stick with slackware then

edit: wow 1337 posts!!! nice!

I am back to slackware right now. I used to have a gentoo stage one, but somehow I messed it up :blink: . Anyway if you can learn slackware to its fullest other distros should be easy.

;) not 1337 anymore

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I've tried gentoo and debian, and I'd have to go with debian. I can't be bothered spending over a day compiling my system, and apt-get works perfectly. Bring on the flames.

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I just finished installing Gentoo on my friend's computer. It took 2 hours to install the system, GNOME, Firefox, Xine, Gaim, OpenOffice.org and several other apps. Mind you I was forced to use a QWERTY (ugh :x) keyboard. I was typing at about 1 character per second. It would have installed faster if I used my Dvorak keyboard. I really don't see what the big deal is with Gentoo's installation.

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Heh, I'm not going to put much effort into my friends computer. Having said that, it turned out very nice. GRP is nearly flawless.

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Debian Sarge is IMO the most stable Linux system available, but the packages aren't the latest, just the ones that have passed Debian 'Quality Control' (i.e. no KDE 3.2 but GNOME 2.4 has been in there for ages). However, the number of packages makes up for this (Debian has the largest number of packages of any distro), and everything works very well. For bleeding edge Debian Sid is OK, but I had some problems with this - particularly with dependancies, so if you want to be on the bleeding edge Gentoo is probably a good choice.

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I've always been a fan of Debian, but i recently switched over to Slackware (ironic, huh?)

Debian is worth it only if you can stand running older packages, in which case it is a great platform

P.S.

If you havent already done so, you should check out the combination of Swaret and Slackware-current

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I was a gentoo-er before, but I switched to debian 4 days ago (Because of pure boredom, and 'cause I hadn't used it yet)

I used the testing version of Debian, since I couldn't STAND having the really REALLY old packages.

I like Gentoo more, but it is more like my personality, as I like to use Alpha-versions of software and such, and theres no possible way I could update EVERY single LAST package in Debian to the alpha versions of software - By the time i Did, there'd be new versions out!

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