Hugh Janus <my-junk-account@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> So it is not noticeably faster? I always thought it was. Maybe when
> people say that it is faster they are refering to it not being so
> bloated perhaps? (Am I right in saying that it is just 1 CD?)

Not really. The base system is /minimum/ one CD -- two, if you install
pre-built packages. PLUS a few hours of downloading, a few hours of
manual configuration, and a couple of days of compiling. Once /that/ is
done, though, you have a system that's mostly easier to
administer/update than most other distros.

> Is portage the equivalent of apt in debian? Is there a package
> repository where I can fetch apps and auto install them like in debian
> and SuSe? How do I get and install security patches and updates?

Quick description of a "typical" update:

emerge --sync
This pulls down descriptions for all available packages from a
convenient mirror. (There's currently around 23000 packages you can
build.)

emerge --pretend --changelog --update --deep world
This will list all existing packages and their dependencies for which
newer versions or revisions are available, so you can see for yourself
whether it's time for an update.

emerge --update --deep world
This will actually install those packages.

If you want a particular piece of software installed, say "stellarium",
you would do:

emerge stellarium

This will figure out which other packages it depends on, install those
if not already present, and then install your package. By "install"
here, it typically means configuring, compiling and installing, without
you having to do all the steps that compiling yourself from source would
take, except waiting. And waiting some more.

If you didn't like the package, "emerge --unmerge stellarium" will
remove it for you.

> Can I install via Knoppix on a dual boot machine?

Absolutely, if you make it triple-boot.

> My machine also has
> XP installed for my wife and when I want to play a game. How do I
> start the Gentoo install and will it sort out the bootloader OK?

No, it leaves that to be configured manually. As for the "how do I",
there's some excellent installation instructions at www.gentoo.org. I
recommend that you print them out before starting.

> Compiling the kernel? Is this a requirement??!!!???

There is a "genkernel" utility that analyses your system, disregards
that information and then enables everything anyhow, and you end up with
a HUGE kernel with tonnes of modules, just like SuSE and other distros.
So even though you compile the kernel, you don't have to answer lots of
questions, and can look at it like installing rather than compiling
(although it does compile it for you).

Using genkernel is, IMHO, to overlook the strengths of gentoo -- that
you can easily configure to fit /your/ particular system. If you have a
single CPU without hyperthreading or multi-core, disabling
multi-threading will give you a noticable performance increase. If you
don't have SCSI or Bluetooth, you don't have to compile and poll for
those at every boot.
Instead of a 50 MB kernel with an equal amount of modules being pulled
in whether needed or not, you can get a 3 MB kernel that does it all,
quicker, and with the saved memory available for disk caching. This
/does/ improve system speed.

Regards,
--
*Art