Useful Stuff

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##UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!


The Basics

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What is Gentoo?

Gentoo is a Linux distribution. It has a special place in landscape of Linux and it's known for its speed, fun community and steep learning curve.

It is what's know as a "source distro", which basically means that instead of getting pre-compiled programs that install straight away you have to compile the source code which makes/builds the program.

What is source code?

Quite simply, source code is how a program is written to make it human readable and writable. Computer readable code (binary, see below) would be prohibitively long to write so people invented languages that could be written by a person and then converted by another program into something that the computer can understand. Here is an example (taken from runningwithscissors on the Gentoo Forums) ~MyClass() { this->!MyClass(); } !MyClass() // this is the finalizer { if (this->foo != nullptr) delete this->foo; this->foo = nullptr; if (this->bar != nullptr) delete this->bar; this->bar = nullptr; }

What is binary?

Binary is just ones and zeros, 1s and 0s; because computers can only tell is something is/should be "on" or "off". We use a program called a "compiler" to turn source code into binary. People call a compiled program "a binary" as well.

Why source and not binary?

There are several reasons but it just comes down to personal preference. By taking control of the program from the very beginning you can manipulate certain options to do with speed, functionality and size. For instance, if you were using another distribution and you wanted an instant messaging program you would likely find that you had the options to use AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo! and a host of other protocols. But what if you only use MSN? Essentially the other protocols are taking up space and making the program slower (not to mention longer to download). With Gentoo you can control which options you want. It is the same with audio programs. If your music library is all in MP3 what use is it to have the ability to play formats that you dont have? We will get on to this subject in the "Portage" section.