Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: DistroWatch and Gentoo packages: status quo and future

[Sebastian Pipping <webmaster@hartwork.org>]

Duncan wrote:
> Agreed.  Yes, overlays are perhaps a bit more trouble to setup than 
> simply maintaining normal tree updates once setup.  But let's get some 
> context here.  layman's no difficulty at all, really, when compared to 
> the ordinary stuff we expect Gentoo users to do all the time.  Gentoo has 
> never been about spoon-feeding and this is no exception.  Layman is a 
> great and powerful tool, certainly, and like any powerful tool, it takes 
> a bit of learning to use, before even the user should trust himself with 
> it. =:^)  But that's more true of Gentoo itself than it is of layman, and 
> anyone who can manage Gentoo can certainly manage layman with little 
> trouble.

I think you forget about the learning curve: Gentoo users are not born
as Gentoo users.  They are coming from other distros (say Debian or Ubuntu).

For me it was unmasking that confused me a lot in the beginning.
There is three different kinds, one is not in "the books" afaik and it's
no fun to me to do.  I guess without autounmask by now I would be so
frustrated to not use Gentoo anymore.

Seriously, stuff like the layman setup mess is another tiny reason
keeping our user base smaller than needed, keeping our recruiting rates
down.



Sebastian