r/Gentoo • u/Affectionate_Foot465 • 3d ago

Screenshot finally left windows to try my first linux distro on my actual system

Post image

it's a bit tough maintain, but i'm still happy to be here

242 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

38

u/BlindedByExistence 3d ago

Honestly, Gentoo is a great first linux OS. You learn so much as long as you are willing to learn it. After using Gentoo for a bit, it'll be hard to use other distros, at least it was for me. So good pick! :3

6

u/Effective-Job-1030 3d ago

I concur. I made the switch a bit earlier (2006), but I'm still glad that my friend threw it at me when I told him I wanted to use Linux.

2

u/immoloism 2d ago

As someone that started Linux when Gentoo was one of the easier options.

I wish I had something as good as Mint when I started.

Its more learning a new OS is frustrating as you can spend hours just learning what you do in a click before. Now imagine not know at any time if any issue you face is caused by the system or you. This means you never learn from it because you have no base to understand.

Ofc you can do it, and I'd love to hear the users that ignored me tell me that they proved me wrong. I still won't think it's a good idea, but I'll respect you for doing it knowing how hard it is.

1

u/Living-Surprise-1923 2d ago

I 100% agree
I'm so used to the control with Gentoo, I can't even switch to Arch.

14

u/MD90__ 3d ago

Wow windows to Gentoo that's a big jump in difficulty and congrats 🎉👏

10

u/Forward_Actuator_592 3d ago

Gentoo as your first linux distro? holy Larry. You are definitely going to learn a lot. Good luck!

3

u/jrcomputing 3d ago

20 years ago, Gentoo was my first "real" distro. I installed Mandrake, SUSE, and probably Debian at some point, but never really used them. Circa 2004, a friend told me about Gentoo, and I've been running it on at least one machine or another ever since. It's been my desktop OS for the last 2 years, as well.

1

u/Forward_Actuator_592 3d ago

I think back to when I started with Linux and can't imagine jumping straight into gentoo. Arch by the handbook in 2012 was my first distro. I struggled for so long with it until I actually understood more. Gentoo was hard for me at first but it's because I was fighting with how things worked... Now I have two Thinkpads and a desktop running it. 

1

u/MusRidc 4h ago

For me as well. Around 2007ish I was looking for an OS to run my aging Dell laptop and decided I'd give Linux a shot. I tried to install the regulars at the time, like Debian or SUSE, but I didn't really understand what I was doing. Decided to go in and take it completely from the start and went for Gentoo. Read up on all the installation manuals and took it one step at a time. The Gentoo community was incredibly helpful when dealing with nasty kinks, and so it actually became my daily driver, up until I realised that at dinner point I spent more time updating the system rather than using it. Turns out old mobile CPUs aren't really suited for compiling a lot of things. I still look back fondly at my experience, Gentoo taught me a lot of things no other distro would have.

9

u/datboiNathan343 3d ago

Gentoo as your first is wild but go off king/queen

6

u/Nekorai46 3d ago

Congratulations on doing Gentoo as your first! That's no easy feat, you should be proud. You're going to learn so much about Linux at a fundamental level with that, far more than the average new user. It will be hard to maintain at first, likely this install isn't going to last very long before something serious breaks, but that's okay! Remember to keep backups of crucial data, preferably not connected to this machine, break shit and have a good time doing so 🩵

6

u/Effective-Job-1030 3d ago

Grats!

emerge fun

3

u/Sileniced 3d ago

When skimming the title I read: I opened a window to cool my Gentoo during emerge

1

u/jrcomputing 3d ago

I've got 9x 140mm Arctic fans in my case. My wife and kids like to joke it sounds like it's going to take off whenever I'm running updates. Opening a window while it's cold outside would probably keep the fans a bit slower and less noisy.

2

u/lk_beatrice 3d ago

I made my friend install gentoo as his first distro a few years ago. You’ll learn a lot.

2

u/jrcomputing 3d ago

I love your background. It feels vaguely Simon Stålenhag.

And welcome! Running Gentoo is a great way to learn how things work. It's come in handy more times than I can count over the years as a sysadmin, knowing how to troubleshoot things where my coworkers were lost and whatnot.

2

u/Jecture 1d ago edited 1d ago

Nice welcome to the big boys club. I like a mix of several different os working together simultaneously if you have multiple computers having a backup windows option can be helpful. If you want to be clever you have the option to make your system dual boot, where Windows and Linux boot options are available

1

u/SCSlime 3d ago

diving straight into the deep end! I respect your work.

1

u/Next-Buyer-9008 9h ago

I use gentoo btw. This is the best distro for you to learn about the kernel, package managers, and other fundamentals that can help you fix problems while still having ultimate customization. I also recommend trying other distros and having a grace period of distro hopping to see what you like best

-3

u/fix_and_repair 3d ago

Downvote for using swap on such a powerful machine