> _The oceans are great promoters of religion,_ > _or at least of humility,_ > _but not in everyone._ > _-Tracy Kidder. Soul of a New Machine._ --- ![[gentoo-pirates.png]] Once upon a midnight weary, browsing threads of lore and meme, In image boards unspeakable, where trolling is the theme, One meme announced a rite of passage, a distro's name we never knew, Though clearly jest, it left us curious, Quoth the meme, "Install Gentoo." ![[gentoo-03.jpg]] By the glow of youthful terminals, curiosity alight, We wgot the [stage3](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Stage_file) tarballs, to pursue this Linux rite. At first [USE](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/USE_flag) felt useless, [Masks](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki//etc/portage/package.mask) a puzzle to decode, No end of painful barriers, on that slow [emerging](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Emerge) road. ![[gentoo-02.jpg]] In times of doubt we often wandered, back to [Arch btw](https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/176qnj4/where_the_i_use_arch_btw_meme_comes_from/), And we found the [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/) superior to any [portage overlay](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Ebuild_repository), But the epiphany eventually came, on our [Road to Damascus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_of_Paul_the_Apostle), Another distro. Which one? We're so glad that you asked us. ![[gentoo-04.jpg]] We finally understood Gentoo, from the only distro we had left, A cursed OS without an ISO, ...just a [goddamn PDF](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/). For [LFS](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/) is where we learn, The most important truth of all. That emerge is just an abstraction over `./configure`, `make`, and `make install` ![[gentoo-06.png]] Descending from the mountain of a completed LFS, We wandered the streets of Arch, an aching absence in our chest, At [each LFS url](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter03/packages.html) we followed, we found [a](https://www.kernel.org/) [different](https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/) [culture](https://www.darwinsys.com/file/)[,](https://www.perl.org/) [a](https://www.python.org/) [separate](https://man-db.gitlab.io/man-db/) [nation](https://www.vim.org/)[.](https://libexpat.github.io/) [A](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter08/inetutils.html) [tower](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter07/util-linux.html) [of](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter08/expect.html) [babel](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter08/readline.html) [in](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter08/binutils.html) [each](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter08/ncurses.html) `./configure`. Who will offer their translation? ![[gentoo-07.png]] Run a simple `tabs 42 && grep -Pro '\-\-(enable|disable|with)[-\w]+' /var/db/repos/gentoo/ | awk -F: '{ printf $2 "\t"; n = split($1, a, "/"); if (n > 1) print a[n-1]; }' | sort | uniq` on your box... And note `--with-linker` in [squirrelsh](https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/app-shells/squirrelsh/squirrelsh-1.2.7-r1.ebuild), but `--enable-linker` in \ [seamonkey](https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/www-client/seamonkey/seamonkey-2.53.18.ebuild), \\ [spidermonkey](https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/dev-lang/spidermonkey/spidermonkey-115.7.0.ebuild), \\ [thunderbird](https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/mail-client/thunderbird/thunderbird-115.7.0.ebuild), \\ && [firefox](https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/www-client/firefox/firefox-122.0.ebuild). ![[gentoo-05.jpg]] Our question to you, dear reader, is "Does this violate the law?" And should these animals punish squirrelsh, by chopping off its paw? For the crime of [sh Configure](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter07/perl.html), does the Perl nation deserve a coup? Shall we invade it, and force them to speak it `./configure`, like GNU? ![[gentoo-11.jpg]] Does `--without-useBuiltinPkgs` in its kebab-camelCase, break every law of man and god? Then dear reader, I ask you, who among you will change [lmod](https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/sys-cluster/lmod/lmod-9999.ebuild)? The [upstream](https://github.com/TACC/Lmod) url is there, in its ebuild for all to see. Who will demand they do it differently? Because it certainly won't be me. ![[gentoo-08.png]] There is no one king or master in the world of Open Source, Each project must be free to choose its laws and norms of course, We're a [@world](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/World_set_(Portage)) of many cultures and 0x1000 different voices, But only one [@system](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/System_set_(Portage)) has the courage to give its user all these choices. ![[gentoo-09.png]] Wherefore the priesthood who compiles, your [deb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deb_(file_format)), your [rpm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPM_Package_Manager), your [tar](https://archlinux.org/packages/)? Each distribution is a cathedral. Only Gentoo the [bazaar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar). We're not all [ricers](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/6x0hq/gentoo_is_for_ricers/), nor all [tweakers](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gentoo/comments/c3p8ya/tweaking_packages/), simply seekers of the deep, So we learned to run `emerge @world` each night before we [sleep](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gentoo/comments/16lpzmh/what_is_longterm_usage_like/), ![[gentoo-12.png]] Now with Gentoo as our compass, on the vast and open seas, Each portage is a chapter, compilation is a breeze, So whenever you feel tempted by a new distro's siren song, Our [community](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gentoo/) will tell you "go there", we don't believe their way is wrong, ![[gentoo-13.jpg]] But when you're older, if you still haven't found a place that feels like home to you, Don't forget the [[cc.png|open seas]]... Quoth the meme, [Install Gentoo](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/install-gentoo). ![[gentoo-01.jpg]] [[fastest-penguin.png|🐧]] && [🎶](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP-7GNoDJ5c) && [⛵](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Installation) --- [email protected]