Re: [gentoo-dev] where goes Gentoo?

[Chris White <chriswhite@gentoo.org>]

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I think the actual idea of what Gentoo does is much larger than people tend to realize it.  When Linux first came out, it was a hacker's choice and has now expanded into something much greater than Linus himself I think had ever anticipated.

Now, when this whole idea of "distributions" came to play, I think the general goals of Linux became slightly distorted.  In my opinion, the goal of Linux distributions is to get people to move to Linux.

Now, each distribution does this differently.  I think Gentoo mainly comes down to customization (note, NOT SPEED).  In a sense, this is why we are able to work so well with the embedded ports, because we can trim things down with that level of customization.  Knoppix does it through a ready made CD that users can see what linux looks like.  Fedora does it through a binary package system and automated hardware detection.  Debian does it through a binary packaging system as well as a somewhat well monitored release system.  All in all, everyone's got their own means to meet the same goal, getting people to move to Linux.

In the end I think that's why it's sometimes frustrating when I see x sucks and y sucks, just to say they suck.  Now, saying "I think you should choose x over y because z and z best meets your goals" is something far better.

So to sum it up, it's not really (for me maybe) about enterprise v. hobbyist, it's about moving ANYONE over to Linux, period.

Chris White

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