374Part IIIChoosing and Installing a Linux DistributionSimply step (Com web hosting)
374Part IIIChoosing and Installing a Linux DistributionSimply step through the /usr/portagedirectory structure to see the softwarepackages you can install, information about how each is built, and patches that areavailable. Installing GentooA Gentoo installation is more like building your own Linux than it is like typicalLinux installs. While many Linux installations start you with a precompiled set ofsoftware and nice screens to lead you through, Gentoo boots you to a shell andexpects you to set up the computer by hand. In the example installation, you llevenbuild your own binaries from source code. To someone who has never used Linux (or other UNIX systems), Gentoo installscanappear daunting. If you can tough through it, however, you will learn what goesinto setting up and making a Linux system in a way that you won t find in any otherLinux distribution. The advantages to your installing Gentoo are that, as mentioned earlier, there isexcellent documentation available and an extraordinary community supportingGentoo. If you make it through the install, you will have: .A tuned system. Because you are making decisions about your software beforethe binaries are produced, you can tune your system to be built specificallyfor the hardware you are using. You can tell Gentoo the exact processor, filesystem types, sound cards, or other features you want built into the kernel orloadable modules. .The software you want. Gentoo enables you to select the software you wantto install, and because you are compiling it yourself, you can even tell Gentoowhat features to include with it. For example, if you are adding the Evolutione-mail client, you can choose to include (or not include) LDAP support forshared address books on your network. .Fewer dependency issues. When you build software yourself, dependencyissues are taken care of at compile time, so you don t have to worry about get- ting a software package that was created for a different architecture or kernel. Your applications will be built for your operating system because you buildthem that way. Getting GentooThe Gentoo Linux distribution is available in several different forms. To provide thefull feel of installing Gentoo, this chapter illustrates a Gentoo install that is done froma minimal disk image. You will download and compile most of the software you need(including the kernel itself). To do this procedure, you need a broadband Internetconnection (no dial-up).