Linux® Bible 2009 Edition: Boot up Ubuntu®, Fedora®, KNOPPIX, Debian®, SUSE®, and 13 Other Distributions

Chapter 23. Running Gentoo Linux

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Understanding Gentoo

• What's in Gentoo

• Installing Gentoo

Several years ago, Gentoo (www.gentoo.org) was the rising star of Linux distributions among Linux enthusiasts. Of all the popular Linux distributions, this is the first one I'd recommend to a technically oriented friend who wanted to tune their own Linux system to the nth degree, and the last one I'd recommend to my wife ("Just show me what button to click for my e-mail"). That's because to install and maintain Gentoo effectively, you have to care (to an almost unnatural extent) about what is going on with your computer.

Gentoo is named after the gentoo penguin, believed to be the fastest underwater swimmers of all penguin species. So Gentoo Linux gives a nod both to the Linux mascot (a penguin named Tux) and to the distribution's own goals to provide tools to create a fast and efficient operating system. (To pronounce Gentoo, use the G sound as you would in the word gentle.)

This chapter describes why you might want to use Gentoo, what the Gentoo community is like, and how to get and install Gentoo Linux.

Note

The Gentoo live/install CD is included on the DVD that comes with this book. You can use this Gentoo CD as described in Appendix A.

Understanding Gentoo

Performance and efficiency were the critical goals that led to the creation of the Gentoo Linux distribution. A dedication to the spirit of open source software (and to those drawn to it) was vital to Gentoo's early rapid and incredible ...