On Mon, Sep 15, 2003 at 11:59:23AM -0400, Brad Laue wrote:
> A concern of mine about many Linux distributions is that in the long
> haul between binary releases of a distribution, the packages included
> with the release can become quite old. In Gentoo's case, if one GRP
> installed their system nine months from now and emerge -u'd, they would
> be faced with a considerable number of packages to update (I wouldn't be
> surprised if it was all of them).

I'm going to be labeled as "not-user-friendly-bastard" on this one, but if
you have a user that GRP installs Gentoo, and then wants to GRP-update with
every release (and keeping in mind that drobbins want to increase the
release-frequency), I'd have to say that he should take a look at the binary
distributions.

Which brings the topic to:

> Realising that Gentoo is of course a source-based distribution, quickly
> and easily installing the latest and greatest by using emerge -k, then
> optimizing by rebuilding incrementally has surely sparked a great deal
> of additional interest in the distribution.

This is something that all distributions deliver: binary packages and an
"easy" way to source-compile packages but keep them in the database. If
Gentoo would go the same way, we are neglecting the source-based stuff.

We should not focus on GRP-after-installation. As I see it, GRP isn't even
the main installation method, but an option. If I am mistaken on this
subject, please say so, because I am writing everything with this in mind (I
am thinking of our handbook-to-come).

These are, ofcourse, my thoughts on the subject.

Wkr,
	Sven Vermeulen

-- 
 ^__^   And Larry saw that it was Good.
 (oo)                                      Sven Vermeulen
 (__)   http://www.gentoo.org              Gentoo Documentation Project