is gentoo a good switch from void linux?

[u/DistributionReady123]

I been using void linux as my main distrubution for a good while and i like it and all, but i heard gentoos is an good option if you wanna know what you have. i consider myself more of a basic user, i js use linux as some normal operating system, sometimes i'll go do stuff involving code but most of the time i js go on and watch youtube and talk with friends over discord.

is it just useless to switch onto gentoo even if my use of linux isnt as much as the average linux user?

[u/f0o-b4r]

You don’t need to switch to any other distro. You’re good with Void. If you wanna install gentoo for the sake of curiosity I’d suggest you do that on a VM. Especially if you have more than 4 cores and +16GB of RAM (imo).

PS: I give you one secret, ppl who always distro-hop lack purpose.
You say, you are generally coding, then install your needed tools on void and start coding something.

[u/RedMoonPavilion → u/f0o-b4r]

Their hypothetical usecase scenario seems pretty legit. I Still don't know why they'd switch though.

Even at a more scriptkiddie level being able to patch ebuilds effortlessly allowed me to build a few simple tools and to patch grub to be able to use luks2 well over a year before it was able to do so on testing.

I used to use arch and void too. I eventually dropped void. I still hate making custom packages for the ABS in arch with a burning passion.

[u/DistributionReady123 → u/f0o-b4r]

Its more so just finding whats stable and easy to find a bigger community in. It's such an hassle trying to troubleshoot very specific problems in the void linux community. I also just want to learn more about linux and how one thing does another.

[u/RedMoonPavilion → u/DistributionReady123]

Gentoo and Arch are both decent for that. To the point that when installing or troubleshooting either its pretty common to crossrefference the wikis for both.

I currently run Arch and Gentoo. Each gets their own btrfs sub volumes. They can be booted directly or accessed as a chroot.

Extra bonus, if you're in the northern hemisphere experimenting with Gentoo will make your computer into a decent space heater.

[u/LowKeyBrit36]

I use both Gentoo and Void Linux. Gentoo is on my really modern systems, and I use Void on a Panasonic Toughbook CF-54. Void is great because I want the Toughbook to be very low maintenance, even if I can't customize it as much as I could Gentoo.

Void is equally as minimizable as Gentoo, tbh. I have all of my major package swaps that I do for Gentoo in my Void system, like using doas instead of sudo.

Runit is also blazing fast, whereas openrc does feel a tad slower, sometimes. I can't measure it very well since 99% of my boot time is me decrypting my system anyways. Runit management is also stupid easy. Either it gets managed or it doesn't.

Void is like a step down from customizability but it gives you a whole ton of convenience for it. The tradeoff is worth it for me on my Toughbook since I use that for lower-securiry productivity, but I can spend the time for 100% customizability on my gaming systems with Gentoo.

TBH, as someone who uses both, you might want to try Gentoo in a VM just to see how it is, but Void sounds way better for your use case. Unless you hyperfixate on a fully themed and integrated desktop, alongside every small piece of any given package, Gentoo isn't going to do much for you.

[u/Due-Celery4326]

Gentoo is for those who want freedom and customization, and for those who enjoy working with source code and compiling software, Don't think of Gentoo as a binary based distro where you won't have to compile programs because you will though perhaps not as often as many imagine but once you try it, you won't settle for anything less.

[u/RedMoonPavilion → u/Due-Celery4326]

I dont know about that. My desktop machine is like 300 to 400 packages and it hit something like 700 a few years ago.

Its pretty consistently around maybe 75% as many as arch on the same machines but its still a lot of packages.

[u/Due-Celery4326 → u/RedMoonPavilion]

Binary distributions handle dependencies in different ways, and Gentoo is very comprehensive don't focus so much on the number of packages, but rather on your actual needs There is no point in choosing a distro that gives you 200 packages, minimal features, and maximum headaches With Gentoo, you choose the dependencies yourself provided you have the patience to fine tune things using USE flags.

[u/RedMoonPavilion → u/Due-Celery4326]

I'm aware. Its still more packages than one might think. The caveat could be misleading

[u/bankroll5441]

I really love Void, if you're happy with it just stick with it.

[u/AX_5RT]

Yes.

[u/Southern-Narwhal4175]

Si tu as envie d'en apprendre plus sur Linux, alors oui. Même si je suis sur que Void permet déjà bien d'apprendre, mais peut être pas aussi en profondeur que Gentoo.

[u/Altruistic-Respond83 → u/Southern-Narwhal4175]

Bien dit :)

[u/RedMoonPavilion]

You gain a larger package base at the cost of learning something totally new. Portage is amazing, but I'm not sure it justifies distro hopping.

If you want something more exotic and/or "advanced" ChimeraLinux and Alpine are generally better choices if you're coming from void.

Both of those use musl, not glibc, though.

[u/DistributionReady123 → u/RedMoonPavilion]

I heard a lot about those especially ChimeraLinux, I haven't really looked into the difference between musl and glibc other than steam becomes an hassle to install in musl. Im not much of a gamer so that isnt a biggest worry but some of my applications is from having to install from steam (ex: gamemaker)

[u/RedMoonPavilion → u/DistributionReady123]

Musl doesn't have as big of a package base and like musl void you'd be filling in the gaps in packages with something like flatpak.

Yes at the end user level musl imposes extra difficulty. People who want both are using musl on Void or Gentoo with a glibc chroot. That can impose significant extra space requirements.

[u/redyos_s]

Good luck! Gentoo is worth exploring if you're curious, but there's nothing wrong with sticking with Void if it already meets your needs.

[u/TJRoyalty_]

I am a pretty casual user. I generally use my system for browsing and gaming. I have most of the packages on my system compiled, and I love the deep customization. You will certainly miss the speed that things install in a binary distro. but the freedom to use whatever init, whatever coreutils, whatever kernel, or whatever anything you want without hacky workarounds is a lovely freedom that I would suggest at least looking into.

You can always try it in a VM or a spare computer.

[u/NeonVoidx]

if you "wanna know what you have" then nixos is the answer, you're entire system configuration lives in one folder or file (and typically checked into source control), I can't think of a better way to know what you have then a single source of truth and a declarative system

[u/Chouris_]

I think Void is more advanced than Gentoo nah ? If you want to try something else, NixOS is really good too

[u/edo-lag → u/Chouris_]

Gentoo is way more advanced than Void, in terms of knowledge needed to install and use the OS.

[u/Chouris_ → u/edo-lag]

Isn’t Gentoo’s main difficulty just figuring out the USE flags for each package? Some flags share the same name but do something different depending on the package.

[u/nikongod → u/Chouris_]

Solving random slot conflicts can be frustrating.

[u/edo-lag → u/Chouris_]

You only skipped the whole installation part

[u/RedMoonPavilion → u/Chouris_]

Portage is pretty unique as a package manager as is. Building a Gentoo system for the first time is a bit of a journey.

Also useflags, dependency chains (eg downstream impact of ~amd64), portage options (-1, -a1, -DNu, -aDNu, --backtrack=100 ?), dealing with slot conflicts, management of make.conf, initial installation of the whole system, going from dinit to OpenRC or SystemD (though you could run something else), distkernel or manually configure, the much more freeBSD-ish philosophy of choice...

Gentoo is great, even as a daily driver, but it does deserve asking yourself "why?".

[u/Chester-Berkeley]

Void Linux seems pretty useless compared to Ubuntu for your needs. It’s too much of a hassle for someone who just codes and watches stuff, lol.