Dustin J. Mitchell wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 09:02:05AM -0400, B. Nice wrote:
>>> I also feel a little guilty that my only contribution as an AT is to
>>> make fun of people trying to unsubscribe from the list.  It's not
>>> exactly productive, and only serves to reinforce the bad rep that Gentoo
>>> has.
>> Where do people get the idea that Gentoo has a bad reputation?  I've
> 
> Well, keep in mind that I run in what is probably a slightly different
> circle -- server admins.
> 
> Gentoo has a *lot* to recommend it technically for administering a
> server -- fine-grained control, careful management of the upgrade path,
> transparency, extensibility, etc.
> 
> But the cultural shift is painful when folks like me try to interact
> with the Gentoo user or developer community.  I think I'm a fairly
> technically adept person (hey, I passed the ebuild quiz), yet several of
> my bugs have been blown off fairly rudely, by developers who had
> obviously not read the entire bug.  Of course, interactions on IRC are
> even worse.  
> 
> The result is that I don't file bugs anymore -- I make a fixed local
> copy of the ebuild and call it a day.  Since I can't recommend that my
> clients and employers do the same, I set them up with a RedHat-derived
> base system and then hand-compile the necessary software on top of that.
> 
> By way of comparison, problems I have had with specific pieces of
> business-critical software (vs. with the distro) have been handled with
> professionalism and dignity.
> 
> Maybe the problem is that Gentoo devs are *too* accessible, and aren't
> really given a choice in the matter.  Does e.g.,
> https://bugzilla.novell.com/ see the same level of activity as Gentoo's?
> I imagine that a lot of the grumpy devs would probably do well just
> sitting in the background and coding.
> 
> Those are my musings..
> 
> Dustin
> 
> P.S. I should add that the amd64 group does not seem to share these
> difficutlies -- this list is sometimes irreverent, but never insulting.
Hi,
I have opened this thread by accident, pls excuse if I'm butting in.  I 
now have Gentoo running on alpha, x86, the laptop, amd64 and soon to be 
mips.  I subscribe to all lists tho' I rarely post..


When I first started a few years ago coming from Debian, the users where 
very helpful but I to was intimidated with some kirt remarks.  I think 
one should remember gentoo can be an intimidating system
Gavin