ConvolutedTheory Nerdy. Deal with it. Or go away.

Reasons *I* love (and hate) gentoo (v2.0)

Well apparently some people got their feelings hurt by my last "love/hate" Gentoo post, and as much as I don't care, I'd like to at least relay a few more things to set the record straight. First off, I like Gentoo, as I said before. I have 2 desktops and 3 servers running it right now *at home*. Why the emphasis? Well, it is my opinion that Gentoo cannot be effectively deployed and managed in a large scale corporate environment. While tools like chef, puppet and cfengine aim to ease these woes, there are certain issues with Gentoo that need to be addressed before it can work seamlessly with these tools. On to my short but sweet list.

Some reasons I love the Gentoo Linux Distribution:
* Fast. Wow is it fast.
* Packages are up to date.
* FreeBSD-ish ports system. Compile everything from scratch.
* Awesome for home uses and personal stuff.

Reasons I *hate* Gentoo:
* FreeBSD-ish ports system. Compiling everything from scratch is awesome for home users, but when you administer hundreds of servers IT SUCKS. Yes, you can set up a binary repository. No, it's not easy. Every other distribution/flavor makes this easy. Why don't you make it easy Gentoo? Was it because of that time in 7th grade I stole your cupcake and your girlfriend all in the same day? Why would you even want that cupcake? it was full of trans fatty acids. I am on my way to heart disease because of that cupcake. That should make you feel better.
* Portage dependency hell. It's awesome that Gentoo is bleeding edge, and has the latest and greatest packages, BUT MAKE A BUILD SYSTEM THAT WORKS. TRANS FATTY ACIDS I TELL YOU.

Disclaimer: You may think this list is uneducated and rough. It is rough, but far from uneducated. I've tried to support an initiative to roll Gentoo out as a production distro a few times. And every time, it's bitten me. If you've gotten it to work, I salute your vigor and steadfast resolve.

Disclaimer 2: "Oh my god, you only have six reasons in your list!". Point being? Those are the first few I could come up with off the top off my head. Do I care what you think? Not really. Make your own list if you want to.

Note: Other people have made these arguments. Much more eloquently than I can, too. Do I need you to remind me of this by leaving a comment? Nope, I sure don't.

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