What is Gentoo Hosting?
If you are looking for a highly customizable and lightweight operating system to run your web server, Gentoo Linux may be the best choice for you. Like so many Linux distributions, Gentoo is free and open source software, licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2, but some contributions to the distribution are actually released under the Creative Commons License.
Gentoo Linux is a Linux-based operating system (OS) that is built with customization in mind. It is designed in many ways to take you back to the Linux roots as it gives you complete freedom to do what you want to do. To give you an idea at just how close Gentoo is to its Linux roots, Tux the penguin is the official mascot of Linux while Gentoo got its name from the Gentoo species of penguin. The Gentoo is a fast swimmer, and its use is designed to indicate the speed of this particular Linux distribution.
Package Management
Gentoo is built using the package manager Portage. This technology functions as its software distribution system, packing building utility and installation and package updater. By using simple commands, you can take complete control of your operating system or server experience.
Benefits of Gentoo
What makes Gentoo so useful and powerful is the control that you get over your operating system. With Gentoo you are not forced to install any piece of software that you don’t want on your computer or server. Each time you install Gentoo, it is compiled and installed just for your machine, allowing you to choose exactly what gets installed on your system and what does not. This allows you to customize Gentoo exactly for your needs while not bloating the system and slowing it down with a bunch of applications that you have no use for and simply don’t want.
Ease of Use
However, because of this control, it is not the most user friendly version of Linux out there. Most commands must be done via the command line and something that might seem simple like system updates require user intervention in order to run. This makes the OS more complicated compared to other distributions meaning that it probably isn’t the best choice for Linux novices.
Speed
We have already mentioned the speed of Gentoo, but it is worth highlighting again as it is, hands down, one of the fastest Linux distributions you could ever hope to use. This makes it the perfect candidate for the operating system on a web server where speed is a necessity so you can serve out pages to the many visitors that your website receives day in and day out.
The reason that Gentoo is so fast, is simply because of the software that it uses and how it is installed. Nothing that you don’t ask for is installed when you build the operating system for your computer and server. So it won’t suffer from software bloat that many other systems have as they are forced to process applications that you never even touch.
Support and Community
Like most distributions of Linux, Gentoo has a very large and active community along with a searchable database filled with documents to help you figure out your way through Gentoo. You can easily find chats, forums and much more about Gentoo and you can even ask questions to the community to find the help you need if you run into problems.
Google Uses It
If you take a closer look at Google’s Chrome OS, you will find that it also uses the same package manager, Portage, for its flagship operating system that can be found on millions of Chromebooks around the world. Admittedly, Google’s Chrome OS has been customized so it isn’t much like Gentoo anymore these days, but still the fact that they have chosen to use the same package manager means at the very least Gentoo and Chrome OS are cousins.
Server Hosting
While you don’t have a choice of what Linux version your site is hosted on when you use the more affordable shared hosting options, when you graduate to the larger packages that include virtual private servers and even your very own dedicated server, you often have way more control over what is and is not on your server.
Some hosting providers who sell Linux dedicated servers, offer Gentoo as one OS option. Other Linux distributions are more widely available pre-installed with dedicated servers. Due to its adaptability, you probably wouldn’t want someone to pre-configure your Gentoo installation anyway. When choosing a dedicated server plan, talk with your hosting provider to ensure Gentoo can be safely installed.
Final Thoughts
Gentoo Linux is one of the most powerful and fastest Linux distributions available today. It is stable, reliable and secure making it the perfect Linux distribution for web or even file server. It is not for the faint of heart, however. It is most definitely more difficult to use compared to many other distributions as it requires you to control everything. Nothing will run on Gentoo Linux unless you want it to, but with this added control comes more responsibility.
If you are looking to purchase your own dedicated server, and are wondering what operating system you should install on it for your web server, consider Gentoo Linux. It will provide you with one of the fastest servers in the data center while providing a secure environment that you are in control of, and not some automated system built into the operating system that will do things for you but slow your system down in the process.
Here’s What Your Gentoo Hosting Needs To Offer
Gentoo is a Linux distribution designed to be lightweight, customizable, and fast. For people who are very comfortable with administering unix-based operating systems, Gentoo is a great choice — especially if speed and efficiency are critical to your needs. Gentoo is not widely available as a choice on server computers, but it is worth searching out. We recommend A2 Hosting for Gentoo hosting.
Find The Best Gentoo Hosting For You
Prices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate.
Prices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate.
Prices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate.
Prices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate.
Prices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate.Gentoo Hosting Frequently Asked Questions
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What is Linux?
Linux is an open source operating system. Because it is open source, the source code can be used, modified, and distributed by anyone in compliance with the GNU General Public License, which has resulted in hundreds of different Linux distributions. The most popular free distributions are Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, and openSUSE. There are also commercial distributions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
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What architectures are supported?
Gentoo Linux is available for many architectures (processor families), including x86, x86_64, sparc, ppc (the PowerPC family), mips, arm, and more. For a complete list of supported architectures, see the Gentoo Handbook on their website.
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So, Gentoo is an OS. Does it work just like Windows or Mac OS X?
Yes and no. There are a number of similarities between modern operating systems, including similar user interfaces and common programs, such as Mozilla Firefox and other internet software. However, Gentoo can be installed with a number of varieties of graphical user interfaces, each of which contains its own unique style, menus, and available programs. And, like most Linux distributions, Gentoo will require more command line programming to customize certain features.
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How do I burn the installation ISO onto a CD?
You will need a CD burning tool for this. Depending on the operating system you’re running, there may be a built-in ISO burner. If so, right clicking on the downloaded file should give you the option to burn to CD. If not, you’ll need a third-party software, like EasyCD Creator, Nero Burning Rom, cdrecord, K3B, or ImgBurn.
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Can I purchase an installation CD?
The easiest way to get the installation CD is to download it on the Gentoo website. But if you’re unable to download it or burn the ISO file to a CD, you can purchase Gentoo through one of their licensed stores. You can find a complete list of licensed stores on their Wiki page.
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How do I add users?
The simplest way to add a user is to use the command line “useradd larry”, where “larry” is the name of the user you wish to add. However, this only gives the user basic rights. To add additional rights, you must follow this format: “root #useradd -m -G users,audio,wheel larry”. Doing this will also add “larry” — but the -G tells the system to add larry to the following groups: users (lets larry interact with the system), audio (lets larry access sound devices), and wheel (gives larry the ability to gain root privileges).
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I’m running an older version of Gentoo. How do I upgrade to the latest version?
There’s no need to reinstall the software, because there is no difference between the various versions of Gentoo once they’ve been installed. All you have to do is run the command line “emerge –sync && emerge -uDN @world”. This will update any installed packages and their dependencies.
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Does Gentoo support international keyboard layouts?
Yes. Once you’ve installed Gentoo, you’ll need to go to go to /etc/conf.d/keymaps and edit the keymap variable. Depending on your keyboard, you may need to set some additional variables, which you can find on the Gentoo Wiki page.
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Does Gentoo offer a LiveCD, so I can try it out?
Yes. You can run Gentoo via the full-functioned LiveCD. However, since Gentoo is designed to install differently based on your system configuration, you won’t get the same experience running it from LiveCD as you would after installing it.
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How do I report bugs?
Users can report system issues on Gentoo’s Bugzilla site. However, before reporting an issue, they suggest that you visit #gentoo on the Freenode IRC network and post about the issue, to see whether or not the issue you are experiencing is a bug.
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How can I contribute to Gentoo?
There are several ways you can contribute to Gentoo. You can provide community support through their IRC channels, on their forums, and through the mailing list. You can help improve their documentation by contributing to the Gentoo Wiki. If you’re a programmer, you can register to become a developer. They have mentors who can help you get started. You can also report bugs, contribute articles or stories, or donate to Gentoo to support their efforts.
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Who maintains Gentoo?
Gentoo was created by Daniel Robbins, and was originally called Enoch Linux. It was built to install specifically to hardware and only include required programs. Robbins released the first Gentoo Linux distribution in 2002, and in 2004 he established the Gentoo Foundation to oversee future development. The Gentoo Foundation is governed by a five-member Board of Trustees and seven-member Gentoo Council. With the help of a rich community of developers and contributors, the Gentoo Foundation continues to develop and release Gentoo Linux.
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Are any other Linux distributions based on Gentoo?
Yes, the following distributions are derived from Gentoo: Calculate Linux, FireballISO, Funtoo, Gentoox, Knopperdisk, Pardus, Pentoo, Sabayon Linux, SystemRescueCD, Tin Hat Linux, and VidaLinux. Additionally, the following distributions use Gentoo’s portage system: CoreOS, Google Chrome OS and Chromium OS, and Ututo.
