Subj : Arch btw
To   : Accession
From : DaiTengu
Date : Wed Nov 26 2025 08:33:14

  Re: Arch btw
  By: Accession to DaiTengu on Tue Nov 25 2025 04:23 pm

 Ac> Yeah, still sounds the same as when I used it. I just can't be bothered to
 Ac> sit and compile my entire system any more, especially when I don't need to
 Ac> optimize packages for anything besides the "cool factor" or bragging that
 Ac> I have the ability. Even with newer hardware, it still takes 15-20 minutes
 Ac> to compile a kernel (heard it from a friend). Then, on those off-chance
 Ac> times where your kernel, gcc, and glibc all need to be updated along with
 Ac> other packages, you're looking at hours. I could be doing something more
 Ac> productive during that time. Nowadays, I can download a kernel, install it
 Ac> along with 20+ other packages, and reboot in the matter of a couple
 Ac> minutes. ;)

 Gentoo does have binary packages for a lot of things now, including the kernel. of course if you have unusual USE flags set, and if packages support them it will still need to be compiled.

I've always wanted to toss Gentoo on one of the boxes we have at work, just to see how fast things will build. They're dual CPU, 64 core AMD EPYCs with at least 512GB RAM and u.2 nvme drives, so I'd be able to compile with 256 threads at once. :D

Honestly, the main reason I use Gentoo to this day is that It's an up-to-date distro that I'm familiar with.  I don't know Arch's package manager, I have an irrational, seething hatred for Ubuntu (and Debian by association), I've forgotten more things about SuSE than I ever knew so I might as well be starting over there, and Slackware just feels ancient and clunky.

Finally, we run Red Hat based distros at work. I'm intimately familiar with Fedora/Redhat/CentOS/Rocky/Alma/etc, but let's be fair: even Fedora's packages are "old" compared to Arch & Gentoo. the RHEL family of distros is made for stability, which doesn't mesh well with "bleeding edge".

....Nostalgia is OK, but it's not what it used to be.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
 * Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

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