RE: [gentoo-user] Immensely disappointed in emerge -DuN world these days

["Daevid Vincent" <daevid@daevid.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Knecht [mailto:markknecht@gmail.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 4:37 PM
>
> I've been messing with a standard x86, middle of the road Gentoo
> machine for over two days now. There must be 20 or 30 packages that
> won't build. Frustrating.
> 
> Most of the problems are in and around getting Gnome updated. Typical
> of the problem, but definitely not limited to this, is the following
> sort of message. Unfortunately every one of the failing packages is
> giving different messages so there's nothing obvious to me here.
> 
> What a mess! I've never in over 6 years of using Gentoo ever seen
> things in worse shape. Two days of this. No fun.
> 
> I do think that a good part of this problem is more of the expat
> stuff. I had hoped it would be fixed up in portage before I got around
> to working on this machine but with upcoming death of the older
> versions of MythTV and the requirements to go to newer versions I had
> to get to work. Bummer. 2 days work and no end in sight.

<rant>
I have to fully agree with you. I used to run a mixture of ~x86 and
"stable" x86 on both my notebook and my server (when I was more naive).
Then I got tired of compiling every day some -r1 -r2 -rN minute ebuild
for a 100MB package. Grr. So I painfully ripped out all the ~x86 masks
and now my system is about 99% 'stable x86'. I thought, foolishly, at
the time, that this would ease my pain. I made the assumption that the
"stable" branch would be well tested and compile cleanly at the very
least. With the occasional minor googling or asking the list for a
simple snag here and there. Boy was that woefully optimistic.

Linux is painful enough as it is to use. 8 billion config files to worry
about screwing up. Another 4 million ebuild.log files to parse and act
upon after every update. rev-dep rebuilding. And then, as someone else
mentioned, the anxiety of the fact that if you don't update with some
frequency, you are so far out of date that an emerge system/world is a
dilemma whether to just format and start over. The old adage, "if it
ain't broke, don't fix it" can't even be applied for that very reason.
Nothing like having a production server S.T.B. because some "stable"
update hosed my box/config/settings, and then I have to scramble for the
next few hours tracking down solutions -- Exim, Dovecot, Apache, KDE,
Gnome all come to mind (my KDE is currently broken as of the emerge
update two days ago). 

Every time I find myself fighting with some package that won't compile,
or a needing a version of something that isn't marked x86 (like SVN
STILL!) that should be by now, or when I watch the 10 other developers
where I work who have Compiz working flawlessly on Ubuntu by simply
"apt-get install"ing it, I wonder what am I hanging on to Gentoo for
(since my first install in 2004).

I REALLY love the theory behind it. I REALLY think/thought it has
potential. I REALLY love the customization. But is that all REALLY worth
the headaches. 

I literally triple boot my notebook now. Gentoo, XP and Ubuntu. The
Ubuntu Gnome/Compiz works great. I can't even get it to work in Gentoo.
SAME F'N HARDWARE! The stupid nVidia drivers are all whack and have
stopped supporting my GeForce 440 card -- I can't change the card so I'm
screwed with older drivers. Yet, somehow Ubuntu works in composite mode
(albeit a tiny bit pokie). WTF?

I look at the major notebook players like Dell and now Lenovo talking
about distros to support and they both choose Ubuntu. I look at
distro-watch and Ubuntu is #1, with gentoo #13 with 1/4 the votes.

I'm not quite ready to jump ship yet, but someone please tell me the
_very near_ future is brighter for Gentoo. Give me some hope...
</rant>

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