Gentoo

I have started using Gentoo as my primary operating system. The installation process took some time, but it was actually way simpler than I expected. The guides are approachable and are great at explaining why a step exists, rather than just give you a list of commands. I managed to get Gentoo working on a 10-year old Macbook. It honestly feels like I have liberated the hardware, more than anything.

If you know anything about Gentoo, you probably know that it is a source-based distribution. This means that rather than download binaries, the default mode of installing packages is to compile them from source. I deeply appreciate this transparent nature of the way Gentoo does things. Now that I feel confident that I can get a system up and running in this way, I want to run Gentoo everywhere.

Perhaps this is some manifestation of the IKEA effect: that which you assemble yourself you tend to love more. Maybe that is partly true here, but I also think that a distribution like Gentoo changes your relationship with the software you run. You are no longer a user but an operator. Even if you cannot audit every line of code you compile, you feel like you have some adjency in controlling what runs on your machine. So far I am enjoying it, let's see where it goes.