Gentoo Linux vs OpenRC

You build the package from a source you can see and read. You decide which features you want to build in and which aren't needed. You can choose build options, optimisation and whatever else fancy stuff you want modified. With a binary distribution this simply isn't possible.

Portage is a package management system with a huge amount of options and features.

The usage of advanced features like USE flags makes it more customizable than any binary distribution.

You are free to do whatever you want with it. As a result, its configuration reflects your unique taste and personality.

It's useful for both beginners and professionals. For the installation, Gentoo offers various types, which are referred to as stages. Basically meaning how in depth you would want to go into the process of installation. For beginners it's useful to choose for a starting distro due to its various stages that can be very time consuming but beneficial as you learn the composition in general of Linux.

Since everything is being built on your PC you can fine-tune the code to make use of your CPU. And all it requires is two lines of string variables in a global config.

There are many architectures available for Gentoo : i386, x86-64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, sparc, DEC Alpha, ARM, MIPS, PA-RISC, S390, IA-64, sh, m68k.

Gentoo's default init system is OpenRC. Gentoo also officially supports systemd-free Gnome and udev. Users are free to choose any init system they want.

Provides a whole handbook to refer to during setup and usage.

There are more than 19.000 packages available in the official repository. And even more with overlays.

You get superiority and get called smart daily for going through the processes of punishing yourself to a compile install you also get a cool neofetch logo.

Installation via a Live USB allows you to go back and fix mistakes from it without having to restart the whole installation process.

OpenRC follows the UNIX philosophy of 'do one thing and do it well', while it's true that it has more features than sysvinit, it does not stay away from its primary function with unnecessary added features.

All configuration is done via shell scripts and symlinks. Shell scripts can then use various specialized utilities to ease the development of init scripts.

OpenRC builds on top of sysvinit and adds some more useful features (like parallel booting) while still the simplicity that sysvinit is know for. Because of this it generally boots faster than other init systems, especially when parallel booting is enabled.

Does one thing and does it well.

Using OpenRC does not lock in a distribution by providing specific NON-POSIX extra services which programs then would rely on.

Basically OpenRC doesn't replace SysV init, but rather works with it, providing features that SysV is lacking while taking advantage of its benefits. It's also used by a fair amount of reasonably popular distros and is well supported and developed.

Uses multi-core and ram very efficiently.

It can be ported to other UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems.

I can add a new startup script for most cases in under five minutes. The ability to quickly insert new applications into the system is a big help.

It always initializes a system the same way; if OpenRC booted and ran a system properly today, it will boot and run properly tomorrow, and the next day.