Re: [gentoo-dev] Thank you

[Tom Wijsman <TomWij@gentoo.org>]

On Thu, 6 Feb 2014 00:30:10 -0600
Canek Peláez Valdés <caneko@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi. TL;DR, this is basically just a THANK YOU to the Gentoo devs, so
> you can go on your daily business if you don't want to read the rest
> of it. No biggie.

Hi.
 
> I just want to say THANK YOU to all of our Gentoo developers. I've
> been using Gentoo since ca. 2002 (damn, that's more than a decade),
> and I've seen a lot of flamewars and bikeshedding on the -dev mailing
> list.

Have you seen this one?
                 ,
              __  \o
  ..<=\   ___ |   |___ 
....<--o / v \\---/ v \
  ..<=/ |--*--|  |--*--|
         \_|_/    \_|_/

It's a bike with flames; or well, if you can make that out of it. You
can very well interpret it to be something else, maybe it looks like
glasses or so with something on the side, I'm fine with that too. Maybe
wearing this glasses would then make you be able to see the flames bike.

Isn't Gentoo all about flamewars (a flame thrower burns things fast;
we're wanting our system to be good at doing things fast, similar) and
bikeshedding (we all want things our own way, which makes Gentoo what
it is; a lot of possibilities giving you a lot of choice) anyway?

> However, you guys get the job done, and although there are some things
> that I would like to have sooner (or would have liked to have
> earlier), in the end the people working keep pushing the necessary
> changes so the distribution keeps going, and (if so desired) using new
> and interesting technologies.

Which things would you like to see sooner?

> More importantly, the developers and the bureaucratic structures they
> have created don't get (too much) in the way of individual or small
> groups of developers pushing for progress. In general at least; there
> will be always someone resisting change, but in general Gentoo keeps
> advancing, and the council and the other bureaucratic structures don't
> punish people for just wanting to have more new and cool features in
> the distribution.

It's a recipe for success I think; but we're not aiming for that as far
as I know, or maybe some do (*shhh* Don't tell anyone that I or we do.),
but as has came up once by someone, I think in the thread about
automatically collecting information (eg. build logs) from users,
Gentoo is there to just fulfill it for people whom have the need to it.

Realistically I don't see Gentoo become a large distribution; or at
least not by just doing what we're doing, however, we might see more
people become interested in it. Who knows one day everyone needs it?

> I've never said Thank You to all our developers in all these years
> using Gentoo,

Thank you too. :)

> but after seeing the discussion the Debian CTTE is having related to
> the default init they should use[1][2][3] (including bureaucratic
> maneuvers, dilatory tactics, legalese interpretation of their
> rulings, etc.), I think the time is long overdue for me to do it.

Well, this makes me wonder if it is useful to have a default at all;
probably it is, in the context of other distros. But for us, do we
really need a default? I highly doubt it; we have OpenRC as a default
because it simply is listed first, but how much does that really mean?

It has come up a small few times that it might be interesting to have a
systemd stage3 alongside the current OpenRC stage3; doing it this way,
the user could pick in advance which init sytem the user wants as
opposed to going through a painful migration to switch.

> Thank you for all the work you guys do and have done.
> Thank you for not penalize progress.
> Thank you for not being so rigid.
> Thank you for keeping the distribution moving and evolving.
> And finally, just thank you.
> 
> From a proud Gentoo+systemd+GNOME 3 user, thank you.

From a proud Gentoo+systemd+GNOME3 using developer, you're welcome.

-- 
With kind regards,

Tom Wijsman (TomWij)
Gentoo Developer

E-mail address  : TomWij@gentoo.org
GPG Public Key  : 6D34E57D
GPG Fingerprint : C165 AF18 AB4C 400B C3D2  ABF0 95B2 1FCD 6D34 E57D