Gentoo Linux Distribution

About Gentoo

What is Gentoo?

Gentoo is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme configurability, performance and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience.

Thanks to a technology called Portage, Gentoo can become an ideal secure server, development workstation, professional desktop, gaming system, embedded solution or something else -- whatever you need it to be. Because of its near-unlimited adaptability, we call Gentoo a metadistribution.

What is Portage?

Portage is the heart of Gentoo, and performs many key functions. For one, Portage is the software distribution system for Gentoo. To get the latest software for Gentoo, you type one command: emerge --sync. This command tells Portage to update your local "Portage tree" over the Internet. Your local Portage tree contains a complete collection of scripts that can be used by Portage to create and install the latest Gentoo packages. Currently, we have more than 10000 packages in our Portage tree, with updates and new ones being added all the time.

Portage is also a package building and installation system. When you want to install a package, you type emerge packagename, at which point Portage automatically builds a custom version of the package to your exact specifications, optimizing it for your hardware and ensuring that the optional features in the package that you want are enabled -- and those you don't want aren't.

Portage also keeps your system up-to-date. Typing emerge -uD world -- one command -- will ensure that all the packages that you want on your system are updated automatically.

MediaShed source gentoo.org

Gentoo is without a doubt a Premier Linux Product and a product MediaShed and SoSLUG are both proud to endourse however it has a few major draw back's to that of it's competitors one is the length of time needed to compile the product in the first place, and as such is totally unsuitable to show speed, flexibility and user portability. Another reason, and I am sure that this will be resolved in time is installation process, because as a group we at SoSLUG and MediaShed use recycled and donated resources the technology the Operating System is being installed to doesn't always work as well as it should. However given these limitations it is possible to get gentoo to run on almost anything, this sometimes can be hard and sometimes unbelievably hard to accomplish, but nothing with Linux is impossible. If Linux is good enough for "Nasa" well then it is good enough for us. Added bonus is that it is free.