I’ve been a longtime Windows user, dating back to the mid 2000s and I’ve also been an avid Mac user for the past several years.

Recently, I decided to jump into Linux. I’ve known about Linux for years but never really looking into it.

One day, I decided to look for distros and I managed to install PopOS on a spare laptop I had. It was a very enjoyable experience and I picked up on it quick.

While looking for tips and tricks regarding PopOS on Youtube, I stumbled upon Gentoo. Someone had made a video reviewing it and it piqued my interest.

A big part of the appeal to me is how highly customizable Gentoo is and how the user has complete control of their system.

But there’s a catch!

It is notoriously difficult to set up and install. But I decided to install It on my laptop anyways.

Was this reckless for a linux novice such as myself? Perhaps but I’m up for a challenge.

One of the things I heard was that the installation for Gentoo takes FOREVER. I downplayed that part. I wish I listened.

Looking back, I would say that it took me about a day and a half to get it working. But alas, here it is!

gentooworking

The biggest issue I was facing was getting my graphics processor to work. I did a stress test on my machine by running a game on the PCSX2, a Playstation 2 emulator, and found that performance was atrocious. It lagged, it was slow. Stuttered too much. Once I set up my graphics processor and got it working, it ran as smooth as butter.

One thing about Gentoo is that it really made me appreciate Windows and MacOS for having the essentials working out of the box. But what does this mean? Well once I was able to boot into something that looked like a desktop, my job wasn’t done yet. I had to install a bunch of stuff. First thing right away, I didn’t have a terminal. So I installed one.

Then I had to install a web browser because the Gentoo installation .ISO did not include a web browser. So I downloaded and installed Firefox. But the installation took FOREVER! Luckily it was close to bedtime so I let it install overnight. Next was to install drivers so I could use WIFI. Fortunately, an ethernet connection works out of the box so I didn’t have to install anything extra for that but I still needed to install wireless drivers. Then when I finally installed drivers for WIFI, I realized that I didn’t have any sound!

So you see the pattern here? Many of the conveniences we have with other operating systems did not exist when I installed Gentoo. But I suppose it’s the whole point. Maybe you DON’T need sound drivers. Maybe you don’t need to use WIFI and can live with an ethernet connection. You can configure your kernel any way you want. You have the power to do what you want with your system.

Of course, I needed to install a bunch of things to my liking. Other things I installed include:

  • An archiving tool
  • Zoom
  • Slack
  • Graphics processor drivers
  • A file manager

I may be missing a few things but this is all I can think of at the moment. Overall, it has been a joy to use Gentoo. I’ve learned so much through my experience. It runs smoothly and I really hope to use this for the long run. This may not be for everyone but I would suggest to at least try it out. It gave me a huge appreciation to the developers that work on these systems for the benefit of the people.

gentoo console