Arch and Gentoo - Which is more hardcore/educational?

[darkphoenix22]

I am currently a maintainer of a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu called infinityOS. However, I am beginning to realize that I've much of what I can learn while being (enjoyably) babied by Ubuntu and aptitude.

I was looking at Arch and Gentoo, but was wondering. Which one would force me to learn more?

Thanks,
Ryan

PS You can check out my distribution at http://infinityos.net

[darkphoenix22]

Hmm. Perhaps this would be better placed on the "Distributions" forum.

Mods feel free to move it if you'd like.

[curaga]

LFS would be my suggestion. It's more intended at teaching anyway than a standard distro.

[LinuxID10T]

LFS would definitely be educational... But you need SERIOUS experience before diving into it. Arch really isn't that hardcore. Gentoo the past few years has moved from being hardcore to even having a live installer. Honestly, you are just as well off with Ubuntu as you are with either Arch or Gentoo these days. While Ubuntu may seem like a beginners distro at first, it is actually quite powerful.

[Shining Arcanine]

LFS would definitely be educational... But you need SERIOUS experience before diving into it. Arch really isn't that hardcore. Gentoo the past few years has moved from being hardcore to even having a live installer. Honestly, you are just as well off with Ubuntu as you are with either Arch or Gentoo these days. While Ubuntu may seem like a beginners distro at first, it is actually quite powerful.

The GUI installer never worked very well and was discontinued because of it. It is difficult to support an exponential number of software configurations and have a single GUI installer be able to install each one of them.

As far as I know, Gentoo is as close to LFS as a distribution can become. It is basically LFS with a package manager to glue everything together. It would likely be more educational than Arch Linux and it would automate a great deal of the menial work involved in doing a LFS install.

[darkphoenix22]

As far as I know, Gentoo is as close to LFS as a distribution can become. It is basically LFS with a package manager to glue everything together. It would likely be more educational than Arch Linux and it would automate a great deal of the menial work involved in doing a LFS install.

For an academic project though, the premise and name of "Linux From Scratch" sounds a bit better.

Though, if you actually wanted to use the thing to do work, Gentoo is definitely a better choice.

[Dragonlord]

LFS if you want to learn Linux. It's very unforgiving but I would not be where I am today without it. Arch I don't know but Gentoo is often more chore than educational (so more hard than core). So if you don't want to get down and dirty with LFS you can also just stick to Ubuntu and company.

[darkphoenix22]

LFS sounds like a good summer project.

It seems made for VMWare too. :P

[chithanh]

Gentoo is a very good distro to learn about Linux. After some time of getting used to it, you could even make it your primary OS. With LFS this would become too cumbersome.

Some Gentoo-based distributions have an installer but you will not get the same learning experience from that.

If you are really interested in acquiring general knowledge in this matter, then I suggest that you take a look at FreeBSD too.

[kraftman]

If you are really interested in acquiring general knowledge in this matter, then I suggest that you take a look at FreeBSD too.

It's not more 'hardcore' then Arch Linux.