What is GentOS?

It is a Linux distribution built from scratch using the LFS/BLFS guides with inspiration from Fedora and Gentoo. The wheel has already been invented, this is simply an improvement for it.

Why this name?

A while back me (Cristian) and a few mates were talking about Linux and Gentoo came up. They were not familiar with it at the time so I showed it to them and said "I could probably buil it in such a way that you would not even feel it was Gentoo but rather CentOS (the Linux distro they were familiar with) and call it GentOS"

Why another Linux distribution?

There are many Linux distributions out there, some cooler than others, some with bigger communities than others, some with more resources than others, some forgotten about, some for hackers, some for gamers and so on. Problem is none of them feels right as each one tries to be some sort of specialised tool to satisfy a greater purpose and somehow convince you that they are the best at what they do (some distros look good, some are optimised for games, some are super stable, some are built for embedded systems, etc) when in reality Linux is about freedom and GentOS is a tribute to that.

What is special about GentOS

Nothing! ... & ... Everything!
Nothing in the sense that it is a Linux distribution and anyone reading this is already familiar with at least a few Linux distributions ... I mean at its core Linux is what? kernel + boot loader + shell + init system + tools & libraries ... and if you've used one you should be able to switch to a different one without much effort.
Everything in the sense that you can do to it and with it whatever you want ... the focus of GentOS is on flexibility which is why one might notice an interesting mix of packages available in its official repositories (for example systemd and sysvinit or grub and lilo or selinux and apparmor, etc).

Package manager?

For now GentOS works with .rpm files using DNF as the package manager however this is so because of how the idea came to exist (see "Why this name?" above) The plan going forward is to give the choice to the user. (I can see a flavor that uses .deb and APT as the package manager and I can also see a flavor that uses both at the same time)

Vision?

Overall I see a rolling release that just works while providing that flexibility and freedom that we all want without compromising on security, privacy and performance. For businesses I see a stable and secure platform on which to grow. For the regular person I see ease of use, privacy and security. There is one more thing: performance. For now GentOS is build using generic CPU support however soon enough it will come with multiple flavors so that you can actually enjoy the hardware you have for what it was built.

What about support?

For now you're on your own, but with time, yes, that is coming.

Are there any training materials I can use to familiarise myself with it or at least some documentation I can read?

This is work in progress. For now you will need to be familiar with any other Linux distribution before attempting to use GentOS and even so you might struggle. Video recordings will be made available soon to demo how certain things are done on GentOS and over time a documentation site will be made available for extra tips and tricks but keep in mind that GentOS is a Linux distribution and if you are familiar with one you will be familiar with this one as well.

Where does GentOS live?

The project lives in Cristian's LAB environment, in the UK (like all good projects, in the garage), where it is kept alive using multiple ISP connections and some old but enterprise grade hardware with some power redundancy and uses a few cloud resources.

Will GentOS be here 5 years from now? What about 50 years from now?

Yes! and No idea! Right now the community has one member. With time that may or may not grow. Resource wise the project has what it needs to take flight and keep flying for a while but for how long nobody knows. What can be said for sure is that the principles behind it will live on regardless of if under the name of GentOS or something else.

Sounds fun! Can I join and work on it with you?

Maybe ... feel free to contact me about it (see the contact form on my blog)
I say maybe because right now it is my "toy" and I need to figure out how to make it everyone's "toy".