Evaluating Funtoo - questions

[jebel.krong]

Hello - discovered Funtoo as a Gentoo alternative and built it in a VM. I love the install instructions. I set up a basic TWM desktop, then KDE-Plasma and tooled around with it for a bit. I really like it, but have a few questions, really these are personal opinions I'm asking for, but still I think it would help me evaluate Funtoo.

• Once you have a working desktop, do you spend much time adding new applications to @world ? Or do you have a set workflow that works for you and don't tend to add/remove many things?
• Do you reinstall often?
• Do most people stick with debian-sources kernel? If so, do you feel you miss out on certain kernel features? If, not, why do you use a different kernel?

TIA!

[drobbins]

I think the answer will vary depending on the person, but I can tell you about how I set up my workstation (laptop, Thinkpad W541). Generally, I want to set things up and have a stable, productive system since I need to be able to potentially leave my home office at a moment's notice and go somewhere... and my laptop needs to work. So I use the standard kits along with gnome-3.20, and now I have xorg 1.19-prime and 3.6-prime of python-kit running. I use debian-sources because it just plan works and I have no time to play with kernels (or need to).

I might reinstall every 3-6 months, just to test the installation process, but this is generally not necessary unless you really *want* to. The apps I use the most are google chrome, hangouts, JetBrains pycharm (Java IDE), git. I have cups set up so I can print. I have a small set of python modules installed from packages to support my development work.

[jebel.krong]

Thanks. It's a really great distro btw, the package kits and the way you recommend holding off on USE flags until you get a bootable system just makes much more sense to me. Your workflow kinda fits what I do. Install a workstation, probably plasma in my case, vim, firefox, a few games, lua, python, and I'm good. I appreciate your response.

[Philipp Ludwig]

I'll just add my 2 cents, since I've been using funtoo for some years now, and gentoo for some more.

On 23.10.2017 at 7:15 PM, jebel.krong said:

• Once you have a working desktop, do you spend much time adding new applications to @world ? Or do you have a set workflow that works for you and don't tend to add/remove many things?

After the main installation, I install all applications which I can think of at the moment and add more as I use the system. During this "phase", I have to deal with USE flags a lot more that I like.

On 23.10.2017 at 7:15 PM, jebel.krong said:

• Do you reinstall often?

On my desktop system, which is my main machine for experimenting/trying out stuff I reinstall every few months, since I a) like to test out other linux distributions to see what they offer and b) to match the current installations process with the installation guide in the wiki (and to update the guide, if needed). On my laptop, I need a stable system for working - like drobbins - so I have only installed funtoo there once.

On 23.10.2017 at 7:15 PM, jebel.krong said:

• Do most people stick with debian-sources kernel? If so, do you feel you miss out on certain kernel features? If, not, why do you use a different kernel?

The debian-sources kernel works fine for the most part, however it doesn't support the keyboard of my Laptop (a Surface Pro 4), which is why I'm using the gentoo-sources kernel there. Also, on my desktop I sometimes experiment with kernels like pf-sources to see if I can get better performance in games, but that never happens ;) kernel optimization is a really time-consuming process.

[Oleg Vinichenko]

we can fix the surface pro 4 problem. please report it.

[Philipp Ludwig]

That would involve backporting these patches https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/9439493/ to the "old" 4.8 debian-sources kernel;  do you think it's worth it? Native support for this device was introduced in linux-4.12 or so.

[Oleg Vinichenko]

alright. actually there is newer version of kernel, which we need to update. for more device support (and Ryzen cpu;s too), so yes. update for the kernel is in progress.

[Philipp Ludwig]

I've unmasked debian-sources 4.12.12 and emerging it right now on my SP4 to see if the keyboard works. I'll open a bug if it doesn't.

[jebel.krong]

Thanks for all the feedback folks. I have xorg installing on my T430 now and a good bit of reading to do.