Gentoo Vs. SUSE 9.0

[mmills]

ok suse and gentoo users,

which distro is the better linux version, and why?

im debating downloading gentoo....

[Hayl]

as has been stated over and over, by many people on this board... neither is "better".

also they both use Linux so neither one is a better "version". the Linux kernel is the same (except for patches like bootsplash, supermount, io elevators, etc and they can all be added on after the fact by the user anyway.

it is entirely a matter of personal preference.

try both and pick the one that _you_ like rather than asking people which one they like as their needs/evaluation are going to be totally different than yours.

[nouse66]

just try it and you'll know!

[arioch]

What is better is defined by need. If you like messing around under the hood a lot = Gentoo. If you want something that just works, so you can go about your business = SUsE or Mandrake. This whole speed superiority thing with Gentoo is greatly overexagerated. And if you don't configure it EXACTLY right, you could easily end up with a slower system.

[bandwidth_pig]

As a Gentoo user, I would concur with most of what has been said already. A lot of the static binaries out there have plenty of good optimizations passed to them already and perform quite nicely. In regards to Gentoo being high maintenance....it can be. But, at the same time, you can elect not to go the high mainentance route. I have a Gentoo system where I haven't done a lot in terms of maintenance at all and she runs fine. But Gentoo is a lot of fun and the nice thing I find about Gentoo is portage is kept up to date. It's a good desktop OS. All in all though, I think when I am done toying with Gentoo, I will go back to Debian. It's really hard to beat Debian. Or Slackware for that matter.

[Parcival]

I use both SuSE and Gentoo - I got my Gentoo working this morning. Yay! :)

I agree with everything the other members say.

Maybe you'd like to know why I'm migrating from SuSE to Gentoo: I want to know what my OS is doing. With SuSE I reached the point where I feel like it is a little bit like Windows, i.e. it's nice to work with, but basically I have no clue what's going on beneath the surface. If you do a stage 1 Gentoo install, you learn a lot about the structure of Linux.

[SunOfTux]

Have you ever given Slackware a try?

I have used SuSE, but not Gentoo.

I won't say that I think one is better than another, either. Someday, if I ever get the time and patience I'll probably try out Gentoo on a test machine.

Of the distros that I've used, Slackware is my personal favorite.

[je_fro]

The best distro EVER!!! (http://tinfoilhat.shmoo.com/)

[Trogdor]

Gentoo is a lot of fun, but I don't recommend it, unless you are a seasoned warrior with the CLI.

[VolcomPimp]

If you're a fan of slack but constantly get mad when trying
to create custom slackpacks, try gentoo and you'll love it.
never tried suse but from what Ive heard, it's a really
good newbie distro. If you're the type of person who doesn't
need bleeding edge and just wants all your hardware automaticly
detected so you can start learning linux easilly then go w/
suse.
If you know the basics and you're looking to get away from
all the prepackaged clutter of other distros but have no
idea what goes on in your etc dir as far as things like
init scripts and such that you don't have to mess
w/ often in other distro's but would really like to learn
by taking the time w/ the help of a guide so once you're
systems installed you're free to explore what actually
goes on in the system so you can feel comfortable diving
into harder stuff and getting better at customization then
gentoo is definitly for you.