It amazes me that I'm always delighted when I install gentoo on a computer. Perhaps I ought to just remember how fulfilling gentoo is, and not ever be delighted again. However, I've decided that all good things in life are defined by a continual renewal of goodness.
It seems as though linux based distributions have penetrated far deeper into normal society than any Free Software zealot could have predicted 20 or even 10 years ago. Ubuntu's happy brown advent has pushed linux far outside of the once narrow niche of hard core computer geeks. As technological and informational proficiency spreads throughout society like a second order phase change, for once, cool follows from geek, and the penguin idol of the geeks transforms into guru of things cool and antarctic demagogue to the mases.
A computer that runs windows is like a brightly colored playpen. Once it starts up you can feel the protecting walls very close around you. You can pay many pretty dollars for small extension modules for your playpen, but there aren't many standard degrees of freedom, and they are very diminutive and well defined. However, all this appearance of safety in spite of microsoft's unquestioning contrary declaration is merely a padded plastic covering over cheaply riveted, thin aluminum bars. Frequently the mechanisms of the playpen break down and sometimes the whole structure can collapse inward leaving you crying because now you're tangled in a nylon net and you can't play with that one toy because you can't find it.
Ubuntu is interesting because it makes a linux based software distribution (debian) appear like unto the playskool comfort of windows, except that it's not red, yellow, green, and blue, but various shades of brown. Ubuntu provides the same playpen safety of windows, except that it's bigger by default, and you can add on as many extension modules as you want. These modules might not be of the same professional appearance as the main desktop module, but the important difference is that with linux, you're not borne up by small aluminum bars, but rather a thoroughly engineered network of steel trusses, like a playpen on substantial stilts. Down below you can see the foundation. It reaches down into bedrock. That's the linux kernel. The substantial beams and pillars are the standard libraries and important software packages that have been supporting the world's heavy duty computing needs for years, decades even. Or they have been based on such software packages: linux, gcc, glibc, binutils, perl, python, gnome, kde, firefox, etc.
Going from windows to ubuntu is like going from ubuntu to gentoo. Gentoo comes in the mail in a box, and you have to assemble it yourself. It makes no arbitrary style or structural choices, you get to design your playpen however you want, and like ubuntu or any other linux distro you get to add onto and customize your extended playpen as much as you want. The difference is that gentoo makes customization so much easier. The liberating sensation one feels when moving from windows to ubuntu is repeated in equal magnitude when one moves from ubuntu to gentoo.
It's like working on your own car. Some people just take their car to a car repair shop, which will probably overcharge you and leave your car worse than it was before. Other people buy a manual from the local auto parts superstore. These manuals typically cover 3 car models through 5 model years, have very few low quality disassembly photographs from a car that doesn't even look like yours, and all of the hard stuff is sensibly cloaked by a few occult incantations of text, insomuch that you're either going to spend a lot of time figuring it out yourself by breaking it or you'll leave all the hard stuff for the experts. Gentoo is like having the manufacturer's service manual. It not only contains five volumes of copious detail on every aspect of the car but is also intelligible, because it is meant to be used.
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