Re: [gentoo-dev] Stupid USE defaults that need cleaning

[Chandler Carruth <chandlerc@gmail.com>]

Brian Harring wrote:

>On Mon, Dec 26, 2005 at 11:28:17PM -0500, Chandler Carruth wrote:
>  
>
>>It occurs to me that this could be (to an extent) accomplished by having
>>a few more "specialized" subprofiles for x86: base, desktop, gnome, and kde.
>>
>>base - as the name implies, a _basic_ starting point... very similar to
>>server profiles, etc. veeery minimal.
>>desktop - almost identical to the current USE flags -- what Joe Q. User
>>"should" have to be safe, and have programs function as expected.
>>gnome / kde - slight specializations of the above to tailor the use
>>flags for one desktop environ or the other..
>>
>>Problems?
>>1) heavier usage and depth of the profile, making where things come in
>>more and more obscure.
>>2) could lead to proliferation of environment tailored "desktop"
>>derivatives. (xfce, fluxbox, the list could go on) This may not be a
>>problem as many distros have successfully divided between KDE and Gnome,
>>and the base / desktop profiles would allow users ways to customize, as
>>always.
>>3) there is _no_ functionality added by any of this, only
>>"user-friendliness" after a fashion, and as such, perhaps it should all
>>be chucked in favor of having users competently declare their own global
>>USE flags during the install, however I doubt that'll get very far. *shrug*
>>    
>>
>
>4) need for the ability to inherit multiple parent profiles.
>
>Otherwise, x86 desktop profile is not guranteed in anyway to reflect 
>sparc desktop profile (yes, somewhat the case now).
>
>A gnome desktop profile would make sense imo, but from a work 
>standpoint is totally dependant on ability to inherit multiple 
>parents.
>
>~harring
>  
>
How close is that ability to portage? Is there interest/room for
help/work towards it? I would like to see a more sensible approach to
establishing default settings (USE flags not the only thing here). Would
help the confusion, and end some of the arts/no-arts, eds/no-eds madness.

Would also aid end users in beginning to customize their system rather
than simply using a default setup.

What about the other 3 problems I myself raised?

-Chandler Carruth
-- 
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list