Linux Myths

A compilation of linux myths and misconceptions, busted and explained

Purpose

To catalog and provide useful responses to common linux misconceptions and myths. To serve as a useful reference for new and old users alike.

I’m not affiliated with the website or its creator(s).

  • @[email protected]
    4•4 months ago

    phew long answer. I wouldn’t call Gentoo unstable. I was rather interested in why it’s supposedly more stable then Fedora.

    I just wrote from my limited experience. I never had something break on Fedora. I just updated a system from 35 to 41. The stuff that broke was something I compiled against old dependencies. (That’s why I didn’t update so long)

    My Gentoo experience is >15y old. I had numerous incompatibilities, because I used the tools the system gave me. But sure that’s on me if I cutomize my system with USE flags. And it’s probably better now.

    • @[email protected]OP
      3•4 months ago

      phew long answer.

      Yeah, lol. My apologies 😅. Thank for reading through all of that 😊!

      I just wrote from my limited experience. I never had something break on Fedora. I just updated a system from 35 to 41. The stuff that broke was something I compiled against old dependencies. (That’s why I didn’t update so long)

      Interesting. Within the last two years, we had issues with mesa and codecs; some devices couldn’t even boot up. I’m glad to hear you haven’t had any issues though. BTW, for the sake of completeness, I’ve been daily driving Fedora Silverblue for over two years now*.

      I just updated a system from 35 to 41.

      LOL, my first version was version 35; which is a curious coincidence. With 41, do you mean Rawhide?

      My Gentoo experience is >15y old.

      15 years is a long time 😅. Do you recall if Gentoo had dependency resolution back then?

      • @[email protected]
        2•4 months ago

        Was on the phone and only quickly looked up the latest version. So I only updated to 40, not rawhide.

        Sure Gentoo had dependency resolution. Does Gentoo still have use flags? Because that makes dependency resolution much hardere It’s not enough to know the dependeicies, you also have to know all the use flags you dedend on. And if a maintainer adds a use flag for a feature you depend on, you have to add that dependency as well or people who disable that flag break with your package.

        I’d be surprised if gentoo was considered stable, if you make heavy use of use-flags - if they still exist.

        edit Maybe your “dependency resolution” is a new automatic thing that identifies dependencies including use flags automaticallt? It was automatidally done, only if the maintainers put the right stuff in their ebuilds.

        • @[email protected]OP
          2•4 months ago

          Does Gentoo still have use flags?

          AFAIK, it still does. Though I wonder if it still comes with a lot of added complexity that you note. I’ve yet to give Gentoo a good try. Therefore, you could be totally right with the following:

          I’d be surprised if gentoo was considered stable, if you make heavy use of use-flag

          Regardless, it was an informative talk. Thank you for that! Have a nice day 😊!