Comment by ryandrake
1 month ago
> The ability to say "I do not want LDAP support in my mail client" and have the package manager actually respect that is cool.
I tried Gentoo around the time that OP started using it, and I also really liked that aspect of it. Most package managers really struggle with this, and when there is configuration, the default is usually "all features enabled". So, when you want to install, say, ffmpeg on Debian, it pulls in a tree of over 250 (!!) dependency packages. Even if you just wanted to use it once to convert a .mp4 container into .mkv.
I also liked the idea when I used Gentoo 15 years ago but you quickly realise it doesn't make much sense.
You are trading off having a system able to handle everything you will throw at it, and having the same binaries as everyone else for, well, basically nothing. You have a supposedly smaller exploitable surface but you have to trust that the Gentoo patches cutting these things out don't introduce new vulnerabilities and don't inadvertently shut off hardening features. You have slightly smaller packages but I'm hard pressed to think of a scenario where it would matter in 2026.
To me, the worst debuggability and the inability to properly communicate with the source project make it a bad idea. I find Arch's pledge to only ship strictly vanilla software much more sensible.