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I'm noy going to say I dislike it, but I don't see the point in a source based distro like Gentoo anymore.
I learned a lot from using Gentoo when I was just getting into Linux 20 years ago, but now looking back on it, why would I want to juggle with everyones build systems and compiler flags? Especially now hardware is so homogenous.
That's no longer the point of Gentoo either.
- gentoo manages compile options globally. This is not only for optimization. It can be used to enable certain features of a program only available via compile options.
- freedom between rolling release, stable release, or a mixture of the two. You don't have to opt for one or the other. And you can only make some programs rolling and others stable. Gentoo is the only distro I know that lets you do this without issues
- can use any version of a program you want. That's the benefit of the build system. Since you're compiling, you link against the versions you want. No more compatibility issues because you didn't use the specific version your distro has.
- super easy to install programs not in the repos and still have them managed by portage. Ebuilds are easy to write, and you don't have compatibility issues if you configure your deps right
- super easy patch management. Just drop it the right place and you're done.
- although its not mandatory, openRC is great
You can pry gentoo from my cold dead hands. The ability to do things like mix LTS and git HEAD packages at will is yuuge, as well as the dynamic dependency graph based on enabled features. Some newer distros like Nix and Guix come close, and even offer the ability to skip compilation via their package caches, but they have a number of pain points in my personal experience.
I agree. Nix and Guix follow a very unorthodox approach to managing a unix-like system, and while they make it work for most things, there's always those few issues that linger around.
I really like their approach. But Gentoo's approach is much more "just works" and tries to be unorthodox only where it is necessary or highly beneficial.