From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from <gentoo-project+bounces-293-garchives=archives.gentoo.org@lists.gentoo.org>) id 1JbzYp-0006FR-3F for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:46:35 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 227B3E07C8; Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:46:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vms173001pub.verizon.net (vms173001pub.verizon.net [206.46.173.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 076C4E07C8 for <gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org>; Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:46:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from gw.thefreemanclan.net ([72.81.14.60]) by vms173001.mailsrvcs.net (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-6.01 (built Apr 3 2006)) with ESMTPA id <0JXZ0024HF4FYRA3@vms173001.mailsrvcs.net> for gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org; Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:33:51 -0500 (CDT) Received: from [127.0.0.1] (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by gw.thefreemanclan.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6CAD01240C9 for <gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org>; Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:45:24 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:45:23 -0400 From: Richard Freeman <rich0@gentoo.org> Subject: [gentoo-project] Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: The KDE overlay moves forward In-reply-to: <frnt1v$6ov$1@ger.gmane.org> To: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org Message-id: <47E12703.8020402@gentoo.org> Precedence: bulk List-Post: <mailto:gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org> List-Help: <mailto:gentoo-project+help@lists.gentoo.org> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:gentoo-project+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org> List-Subscribe: <mailto:gentoo-project+subscribe@lists.gentoo.org> List-Id: Gentoo Project discussion list <gentoo-project.gentoo.org> X-BeenThere: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit References: <200803172343.24372.philantrop@gentoo.org> <frnt1v$6ov$1@ger.gmane.org> User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (X11/20080301) X-Archives-Salt: 407e1550-7200-439f-879b-99655dcd101e X-Archives-Hash: 4c5bc72baf952eb76c0c699b2f068417 Moving this to -project due to topic drift... Steve Long wrote: > Wulf C. Krueger wrote: >> Most of us who are working on the overlay have been using alternative >> package managers (PM) for quite some time now. Thus, the idea arose to go >> a step further and actually make good use of the capabilities they offer >> us. >> > Makes sense; after all you can do whatever you want in an overlay without > concern for how it will affect anyone else. > I wonder if there would be benefits into making gentoo more of a meta-distribution along these lines. Instead of having one definitive portage tree with some experimental overlays, you'd instead have a couple of branches: 1. A core portage tree. This would contain at least one package manager and key system dependencies. Any could be overridden by an experimental overlay, but the general intention would be for most ordinary users to use the core tree for the key dependencies like gcc/glibc/baselayout/etc. This will avoid major dependency issues if everybody wants to demand their favorite versions of these kinds of packages which are often unslotted. 2. A repository manager GUI that lets users choose any number of application repositories. Said repositories are allowed to collide, and users can select what priority the package manager should give to each in the event of collision (priorities set both at an overall level and per-package/category/etc). 3. Gentoo would be free to endorse particular repositories, and possibly manage some of them as well. A default configuration would give new users the sort of experience they'd expect to get by default. Anybody could freely set up a repository with nothing more than an rsync server, although to get linked by Gentoo there might be some minimal QA standards. There could also be multiple tiers of endorsement - from "somewhat unlikely to outright rootkit your box" to "you should pay these guys for this level of quality". There could be license restrictions on endorsed repositories as well. This would offer more user choice, and user involvement, since the various repositories could have varying requirements for participation. Users could potentially fork any part of the distro and still benefit from the rest as well, with everybody benefiting from the resulting sharing. The downside might be division of effort and less unification (many packages could end up having mutally-exclusive requirements such as specific package managers that implement particular EAPIs, etc). This isn't really anything that requires any kind of action - but just food for thought that I figured I'd toss out there. -- gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org mailing list