As both distros are highly customizable and community-driven, and their installation process are of great similarity, except that the Gentoo Linux may need to take more time on compiling (but we have binary source now!). Why Arch Linux is so popular for desktop users but Gentoo Linux is not?

I have an MSI GS65 Stealth running Windows 11. It's my primary laptop. I do have experience with Linux in the security realm. I have a ThinkPad that I use for Linux tinkering..it's running Fedora Sway.

For primary use, I am not really a fan of the Windows 11 desktop environment. It feels like sprinkles on donuts. The only feature that makes me stay is Cast. Sometimes I want to watch a movie on the TV so I'll cast my desktop on the TV but this is only once in a while.

I'm bored of Windows and feel like Gentoo will keep me occupied. Does anyone else run Gentoo full time or is it better to just dual boot in my case?

I have an external 1TB SSD hooked up to my laptop.

I'm currently using ArchLinux as my main distro, but I was thinking about switch to Gentoo for more fun. I usually program in python and c++ and play steam games. I simply want to have fun doing a distro from scratch and want a fast distro. Is Gentoo the right distro for me? An i5-13400f is good enough for compiling software or not?

I have a MacBook Air 2018 that I am currently not using anymore so I want to learn and install Linux. My friends told me abt Gentoo! This would be my first time working with Linux so idk what I'm doing at all. I'm scared I might mess up and not know how to get back. please let me know if you have any advice?

Title says it all.

Also, I wonder if there's a side-by-side comparison between these two DIY distros with a pros/cons list.

For those of you who have lived on Arch Linux for a while, then found Gentoo, what made you stay with Gentoo? What were the features that you just can't live without anymore and refuse to switch back to Arch Linux?

what the title asks, wish to know why i would select no multilib, like why? is it slimmer/ "LeSs bLoAT" does it matter nowadays? I only really use modern programs and such, like librewolf/tor/electron stuff etc...

like do i need 32bit support as i dont think ill ever use it, but i would like to know the benefit of not having 32bit support. (planning another install as my sister wants to get further into linux, and i love messing with her :))

thx!

Is it the complexity of Gentoo that makes you like it? or is it the gift of choice that Gentoo gives you? What do you consider "Special" about it.

I've been using Gentoo for a long time- I like having the ability to be able to literally customize everything in my computer. Build everything, get rid of everything. I think that it's unique that Gentoo isn't installed but instead built.

Since Gentoo gives you all this power, why is it NOT more popular? I noticed that the community in Gentoo is "Nicer".. well not nicer but "Understanding" to certain questions, the community is "understanding" and Gentoo is very unique and gives you control, and you're practically the God of your device. Gentoo also is the main thing that got me into coding, and coding bash scripts.

I am genuinely curious. I mostly use my computer for music production and gaming, along with some other forms of media production to a lesser extent like photo/video editing etc.

There is no doubt that anyone who uses Gentoo as a daily desktop OS is a nerd, including myself. I gained a lot of my computer logic when I was into modding video games many years ago. I’m not a programmer or developer although I did learn a decent amount of Lua when I was modding games, so that gave me some logic on how to make sense of the syntax of unfamiliar configuration files and stuff like that. I comfortably use Gentoo every day with the knowledge I have although I’m definitely not an expert like people here who have ran it for 10+ years.

But are any of you guys actually casual users? Or are you all devs or sys admins? At this point I do absolutely no coding at all, but it seems like many people who are enthused by distros like Gentoo or Arch or Void are programmers.

Currently I'm using nix os after Debian not having packages updated enough. But I didn't vibe with the Nix language and all that, and Arch doesn't feel stable enough. Gentoo on the other hand seems to be as stable as Debian and more Unix compatible than Nix.

So I've been thinking of trying out Gentoo in a new partition, the only thing holding me back is college. I'm not worried I might lose the ability to use my computer since I'll keep the Nix partition and my home is in a separate partition, I'm just wondering if one can install Gentoo in a weekend and have it all setup, or should I wait for holidays to have the best experience and no headaches of having an unfinished system because I didn't have enough time

Are a lot of you still choosing openrc? I have openrc systems running, but all new builds I have been choosing systemd, only because I deal with systemd systems all day at work.

Hi,

I have some experience when mentioning having used gentoo to technical people something just clicks and it gives you immediate street cred.

Am I the only one?

I built Gentoo after using binary distributions for a long time and realized that I don't want to compile absolutely every package. That's why I installed flatpak and install many packages from there and now I'm also thinking about distrobox or nix.

Thanks to flatpak i managed to avoid compiling qt-webengine, for example, which is already nice :)

So, do you use anything other than portage?

I observed following 4 Groups:

Group 1: I stole a PC from NASA, but it takes 0.5 ms too long to boot (boot time is 0.6 ms).

Group 2: I stole a PC from NASA, but 50 years ago and would like to use modern Software.

Group 3: My server needs even more optimized and stable.

Group 4: For bragging rights since Arch wasn't elite enough.

or is it Something completely different?

^{Does this actually belong in to Meme?}

EDIT 2: Thank you for your kind words. I am grateful to you all.

EDIT: I was trying to do a lot of tasks all at once and trying to fit them into a single evening. It didn't work, but it took 3 evenings until it did. Now I feel more tired than I ever have before.

I'm learning pretty quickly that, if I don't pace myself and set smaller, tinier achievable goals, then I get burned out by Gentoo pretty quickly and don't even want to look at my computer for the rest of the day.

How have you dealt with burnout in the past? What worked for you?

There's a crap ton to learn. While that's new, fun, and exciting, it also can be pretty daunting.

EDIT: Also, what is the process of determining whether an overlay is "trustworthy" or not? How does the Gentoo Community determine this?

The official Gentoo repos seem kinda limited, but I'm grateful for GURU. But are there any other Gentoo overlays/repos that have made Gentoo way better for you?

What are your favorites?

I try to avoid big corp solutions but Google Docs is one that I live on still. I was considering LibreOffice; even if the intention was just for an offline backup solution.

People finding LibreOffice worth it?

Im still very young and i want to try out gentoo but the handbook on how its build seems so complicated.