Gentoo Linux is a high performance, source-based Linux distribution. It has an advanced *BSD-style package management system called Portage which is written in Python. Gentoo is hailed as a meta-distribution because of its near infinite configurability. This includes the optional use of "USE flags," which describe the hardware and software features the user would like to include while building packages. The originator and current head of the Gentoo project is Daniel Robbins.
One of the goals for Gentoo Linux 1.4 is the addition of the GRP--the Gentoo Reference Platform--which allows users to install precompiled packages built to certain baselines specifications. This may be an attempt to appease naysayers; some believe that Gentoo users spend too much time compiling and recompiling common packages.
It is also possible to create tarballs of packages for distribution to other machines; this is particularly useful in the case of a homogenous computing environment, where one machine can build new or updated packages and the resulting precompiled tarballs can be installed on the rest of the machines without needing any further modification or rebuilding.
In June 2003, Zachary Welch, a long-standing developer and sponsor of Gentoo, announced that he was unhappy with the direction of Gentoo and was creating a new distribution. This is to be maintained by a new non-profit organisation, the Zynot Foundation.
Gentoo currently runs on the x86, PowerPC, SPARC, and HPPA platforms; ports to AMD64 and IA64 are underway.
External link
- Gentoo Linux
- Zynot Foundation, includes a detailed discussion of reasons for the fork.
- Zynot wiki.