Comments by "Juzu Juzu" (@juzujuzu4555) on "The Biggest Failure Of Linux Is Package Management" video.

Gentoo Linux, no Systemd and Portage is just amazing (the 'package' manager, or ebuild manager really). Package management that compiles everything with great optimization directly to your hardware and software, not compiling dependencies that you don't need or want. Now that CPUs are getting ever more powerful, with more cores and huge amount of caches, compiling happens so fast that Gentoo should really get more traction. Rolling release distro that with testing branch (that many are using as it doesn't seem to break the system) gets you zero day sources that your package manager compiles with the optimization level that you want. Even on stable branch it gets you never packages that probably any other distro. Any Linux power user that has decent hardware should check that out.
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@marioschroers7318 Installation forces you to learn a lot. Soon after getting everything in order, you feel that you handle the basics. Though right after the installation you don't see that and might feel the anxiety that it's too hard system to handle. But if you push through, soon that changes and it happens much faster than you might think. Raspberry Pi would be way too slow for installation in my opinion anyway. If you have never configured and compiled a kernel before, that might seem intimidating and hard. But it's really not that hard. Vast majority of options you don't need to change or even really understand. Really you probably don't even need to configure kernel at all, but anyone that plans on using Gentoo should learn that because at some point in the future, you either want or need to change something.
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@bigpod If you configure your optimization thoroughly, and especially if you use LTO, Graphite etc. you certainly will get bigger boosts. Certainly in the 10-20% region. But it's not about the performance, it's about full control, or about security because it also allows you to use all the security features that compiler offers, and make the attack surface smaller by removing dependencies. It should be pretty obvious which features you need, or at least which you are certainly not going to need. That sort of recompiling should be really rare. Though with laptops compiling isn't the most fun operation, unless you have Zen 2 laptop with 8 cores. But I still use Gentoo on my dual core 2.3ghz laptop from 2014. While compiling with that takes a lot of time, at least that extra speed comes in good use, and Gentoo's low RAM usage is great thing too.
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@Donald Mickunas Setting up optimization flags is simple compared to installing Gentoo. Just copy paste couple of lines and you have great global configuration. Compiling takes longer, that doesn't matter unless that time is too much. Assuming you have 8 cores or more, just let compiler use 2 cores and compiling on the background gets done unnoticed. Or update when you are leaving the computer. There really isn't learning curve to Gentoo's package management, not more than with any other package management. Installation is the problematic thing. So I'm almost certain that new users won't survive the installation.
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@bigpod In your case performance don't matter. Though thoroughly optimizing doesn't require active configuration, you can get GentooLTO overlay, configure it once and then it uses those configs for all the packages that it knows that work with those aggressive settings. I care about RAM usage, even though most likely those savings doesn't make any real difference, same with performance, security etc. I benefit because I feel good when I know my system completely, and know it's fast and lean. That makes me mentally more productive. And I had Ubuntu Mate and Gentoo Mate on my laptop for awhile. The difference could be easily seen. I love it, but I get that it's not for everyone.
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@marioschroers7318 You learn by installing Gentoo, reading the installation manual and Gentoo wiki. Once you get through the installation, you already are in great shape. The learning curve seems really steep, and it seems that it will continue for a long time, but suddenly you realize that you master the basics in a way that simple search or look into wiki / using Gentoo's amazing IRC channel or forums, will get you through anything.
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@marioschroers7318 Getting Gentoo work in VM can create some additional difficulties. Not saying that you shouldn't try that first, but just reminding that if you encounter problems, those can be VM specific. I tried Gentoo in VM at first too. It was easier with real hardware. And compiling gets faster with real hardware. Remember that compiling certain packages takes huge amount of ram, so use 1 thread per 2gb of RAM that you give to VM. Certain packages take more than 1gb per thread, 2gb will be enough for everything.
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@loreleimanifold Zen 2 as in AMD Ryzen 3rd gen CPUs that were launched year ago. Those are really fast at compiling. Gentoo's own kernel is really fast, and it's configured so that only the necessary modules are being included, thus it's possible that you might need to configure the kernel to add some modules, but still unlikely. In any case the Gentoo wiki is great place, and IRC channel is really friendly towards noobs, something that was big positive surprise. Zen 2 with 8 cores and fast RAM is probably close to 50 times faster than Turion. But the code base is much bigger, and compilers are much more complex today, so overall I would say compiling should be about 5-10 times faster on that Zen 2 CPU. But if you have at least 4 core 8 thread CPU that is Skylake or later, it should be still quite a different experience.
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@loreleimanifold I'm not sure if the genkernel produces the same default config that is activated by manual configuration, or if it changes something, but at least if you download kernel-sources compile that, and of course at least change the CPU to "core 2 and newer", it's pretty great configuration and creates a fast kernel. I have never tried the gernkernel script either. Those IRC channels are great. And it's just like with programming, understanding the machine and learning C/C++ helps you overall, just the same applies with Linux. Gentoo installation and configuration is the most dense learning experience of my Linux "career."
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@marioschroers7318 It will be intimidating at first, but that's the biggest obstacle in my opinion, fear. The great thing with VM installation is that you can continue it when you want, and look for information with the host machine. You should check what hardware configuration to use with Virtualbox, or whatever VM you use. There was wiki page for installation in VMs that has additional info. I had problems with my Virtualbox at the time, but it might go easy with the new version.
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@marioschroers7318 I have been so happy with Gentoo that I like to pass the favor to others. And I think Gentoo is really important project for many reasons, and not having systemd is also good thing (though you could install Gentoo with systemd, but I think vast majority prefer openrc). Thank you, and your welcome =)
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@loreleimanifold I once tried Plasma, on my dual core (with single channel slow RAM and small caches) I left it compiling when I went to sleep and it was compiled when I woke up. So can't say really anything meaningful, other than modern CPUs with larger caches and faster RAM, especially Zen 2, helps a lot.
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@RitzyBusiness The only real commitment is the installation process. After that you just have longer updates. And you certainly notice the advantage. But it's also about security and knowing your system. I have optimized Gentoo in my dual core laptop from 2015 and it is significantly faster than Ubuntu with the same desktop. But the initial jump to Gentoo is commitment. Though one that is worth taking.
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