Linux Making the switch to gentoo for a while. Advice?

I have an HP ZV6000 laptop running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn with XGL, Broadcom Wireless G (via fwcutter script), and compiz-fusion. It is nice, but it is time for an upgrade and I figured I'd give Gentoo a try.

Here's what I use my laptop for:

• PHP Scripting
• Graphics Design (inkscape, with the gimp for touch-ups)
• Audio recording and editing (for my podcast)
• Web Browsing
• Standard Office tasks

The main apps I use are: Inkscape, Firefox, OpenOffice.org writer, gnucash, audacity, and occassionally Blender.

I want the system to run as efficiently as possible, but wouldn't mind a little eye-candy as well (such as compiz-fusion or similar), simply to make it a fun system to use.

I've always used Gnome, but I'm thinking of trying a more stripped down interface, since I hear that can make a huge performance difference. If I use a slimmer interface, will I still be able to use all my gnome apps?
What are the key benefits of the various window managers?

Thanks in advance!

(let's time how long it takes glider to find this thread!)

 

Some one wanting to convert to gentoo, he can probably feel the disturbance in the force...

What gnome apps do you have in mind?
XFCE is pretty good some where between kde/gnome and Fluxbox etal, i've moved to it from flux, just sitting after loading its using less than 100mb ram and its very snappy even on my epia machine (which is slow) i've not tried gnome on it but given how slow ubuntu ran on a P3 i doubt it would be much fun. Its got lots of desklets and is very customisable.

 

Well, you can theoretically run Compiz Fusion by itself without GNOME, but I wouldn’t recommend it (I wouldn’t recommend using it at all). If you want lightweight you might want to consider using a tiling window manager such as xmonad or dwm. Or if that’s not your thing something like Fluxbox should be more suited. And yes, most GNOME apps will work so long as you have Gtk+ installed.

 

Thanks for the tips...
I guess I should have mentioned that I still like eyecandy, but I don't want to go with one window manager over the rest simply because it is what I'm used to.

Oddly enough, gnome feels faster and more responsive on my laptop with compiz-fusion than without. So I just would hate to use gnome when there might be something just as shiny and usable yet even faster.

(with that said, on my XP machines I do revert to "classic" as opposed to beveled edges and gradients)

 

I know, slow (1hour 9minutes), but I'm having my last exam tomorrow, errr, in less 13 hours...

You're willing to install Gentoo, GREAT! (all my hard work payed off)

What you need?

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml

... and a bit of time Just ignore genkernel... do it by hand

About the WMs: KDE and Gnome are big, bulky, but incorporate everything... Hardly worth Gentoo Fluxbox owns them all (might be a slightly subjective opinion). I'm all for Minimalsm (extreme), so I use Flux. But Compiz-fusion surely works too. I haven't used it myself tough.

Some advice, if you don't like waiting, emerge openoffice-bin instead of openoffice (real men don't mind 9hours of compile time, but some just can't wait )

And if you have questions, just shoot. (I sense some kernel config questions )

 

If you want really fast just use Emacs in a vc

 

EEEEeeww, Emacs...

 

Ssh, vi luser.

 

Vi is for oldies, real men use VIm

 

They’re both as featureless as eachother

 

Some call it featureless... some don't like browsing the web in their text editor...

 

The fools…

 

My advice: If you can use 64bit, do it, gentoo is the best distribution to do this, but you will have to emerge firefox-bin, openoffice-bin and mplayer-bin if you want to use codec/plugin/some feature that are 32bit only (it is why these 3 apps have a -bin version too).

Fluxbox can seem to be too minimalistic, but go and look at our desktop on the linux desktop thread, you will see that once it is customised, it is not the minimalistic anymore. In fact, i prefer a well skinned fluxbox over Gnome and KDE.

An other advise is to make your make.conf before instalation and post it here so we can see if you have the right use flag for your apps and details like that. It can save you a lot of debugging time for a first install. (trust me on that point, all my work (converting people to gentoo ( even from windows)) did pay off on some other forum compilling few apps without support for things like X few libs bellow GUI level can cause some really strange error, and it is not the only case)

 

You mention these 3 apps having features that are 32 bit only, will I run into any other issues due to 64 bit?

I'm backing up my current system right now, since I do have a working ubuntu setup I don't want to completely shoot myself in the foot.

I may also wait until I get a new hard drive before taking the plunge (since it looks like this may be an entire weekend trip rather than an over-night trip, I may have longer to plan this out).

 

I'd imagine you already know, but Gentoo is NOT an easy distribution for beginners. You've used Linux before, so it won't be *as* bad, but Gentoo is a very labor-intensive (though rewarding) OS to get installed. Just so you're prepared for what's ahead.

 

build it up in a vm first, set everything up so you know what you need and what works well together, and then when you actually install it you won't have to screw around and will have a working OS as soon as possible.

 

A full Gentoo reinstall takes me about a weekend... But I can start to use my system after 3-4hours, just not all applications are compiled at that stage. I also must mention, I compile OpenOffice from source (just a matter of principle and I really dislike the Sun logo ), which is the last 8-9 hours of the weekend.

Gentoo may take a while to set up initially, but once you get used to it you'll never want to go back

 

Meh, I did a full-on gentoo install a couple years ago, in one sitting. After spending about 10 hours getting it up and running, I was already so tired of it that I wiped it the next day without actually using it

 

Well, let's be honest here... I function very well in my windows xp environment (which is running stable), and I also function pretty well in my Ubuntu environment. (I can navigate Windows with the keyboard better than Linux, but that's because I'm so used to the shortcuts... and I just heard about launchy which makes me want to get rid of my start bar almost)

The primary purposes for installing Gentoo are: geek cred, speed, and learning.

I love running my business with freedom (although I haven't found any good vinyl plotter apps for Linux that will allow me to run the vinyl decal side of my business), and it is always fun to show someone a complicated graphic and say it was done in nothing but open source software.

But if ease of use were a priority, I'd just buy Vista or XP Pro.

I'm a PHP nerd at the moment, but I'd really like to get into more hardcore development, and what better way than a distribution that requires me to compile a text editor before I use it?
Plus, I really don't want to have to upgrade my laptop for a while, so I want to squeeze whatever performance I can out of it.

 

*-bin are 32 bit precompiled version (with 32bit lib included), so no, you will not have problem, they are here to get ride of them (those problems) flash will work, java will work, codecs will work, font (ok, must will work in 64bit too), dictonary will work, and so on.