[olug] RE: Gentoo vs Red Hat (was Red Hat network and update removal)

[thehaas at binary.net]

On Thu, Sep 25, 2003 at 08:41:29AM -0500, Craig Wolf wrote:
> I installed from the RedHatNetwork.  Couple of clicks and the system
> updates itself.  There in lies the problem I guess.  I have played with
> Gentoo in the past with no luck but I am thinking that it is time to
> try again.  I have some squid servers to setup for the District and I
> have a new server going in at the new gig I just landed.  I may have to
> make that one Gentoo also IF, IF I can get it to work this time.  It
> will be a webserver/DB/File/DHCP/Samba server with Firewall at the new
> gig (5-7 users).  This will be a proving ground to my regular boss that
> Linux can "do the job".  I DON'T want to screw this up!  
> 
> Answer me this: How different is Gentoo from Red Hat?  Will my limited
> knowledge of Red Hat Linux allow me to run a Gentoo Linux box
> effectively?  What major differences will I run into?  Would someone on
> the list be willing to let me call them, not email, if I get in too
> deep and need to be walked through a tough problem that google/Gentoo's
> website won't/can't answer??  In case you can't tell, I am a little
> nervous about this.  

If you are new(er) to Linux, and you trying to setup a proving ground for
it at your workplace, than Gentoo is not a good choice.  RedHat is a
better choice because it's more well-known, much faster to setup, and
less chance to mess up.  If you want to mess with Gentoo, do it on your
own time at home, or setup it up as a toy in the office.

That said, Gentoo is a great distro -- not only is it high-performance
and ultra-tweakable, it also forces you to learn a lot of about Linux.  I
moved to Gentoo about 18 months ago from Suse, and I know *a lot* more
about my system now that I use Gentoo then letting Suse do all the work.
You are responsible for setting up most things on your system -- nothing
is taken for granted.

The main difference between the two is that Gentoo compiles all it's
packages from scratch, while the rpm's from Redhat are pre-compiled.  It
doesn't sound like a big deal, but Gentoo allows you to tweak your
compiler options to work just on your type of processor, which can speed
up your system dramatically.  RedHat rpm's are more compiled to be more
generic, so they work on more systems, but they are not as fast.  It's a
trade-off.

I hope my explanation helped.  Again, choose RedHat and then try Gentoo
when you become more comfortable.

-- 
Mike Hostetler          
thehaas at binary.net
http://users.binary.net/thehaas 
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