From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1GwZN8-0004mL-NG for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 19 Dec 2006 07:26:47 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id kBJ7OdCg007508; Tue, 19 Dec 2006 07:24:39 GMT Received: from cranium.sybase.co.za (sqlprd.sybase.co.za [192.96.139.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id kBJ7LRbP021544 for ; Tue, 19 Dec 2006 07:21:28 GMT Received: from localhost (cranium.sybase.co.za [127.0.0.1]) by cranium.sybase.co.za (Postfix) with ESMTP id 78AB98343A for ; Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:26:05 +0200 (SAST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at sybase.co.za Received: from cranium.sybase.co.za ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (cranium.sybase.co.za [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id YB2BSe63DuDC for ; Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:25:59 +0200 (SAST) Received: from bard.sybase.co.za (bard.sybase.co.za [192.168.2.6]) by cranium.sybase.co.za (Postfix) with ESMTP id 20DF683436 for ; Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:25:58 +0200 (SAST) Received: from [192.168.2.130] ([192.168.2.130]) by bard.sybase.co.za with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:23:18 +0200 From: Alan McKinnon To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Is Gentoo healthy? Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:22:20 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.5 References: <49bf44f10612180647g6ac243ebm9cfa8b79a5aeb3b5@mail.gmail.com> <200612181827.20843.volker.armin.hemmann@tu-clausthal.de> <49bf44f10612181054s6e4f621dy17708692a71a25dd@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <49bf44f10612181054s6e4f621dy17708692a71a25dd@mail.gmail.com> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200612190922.20191.alan@linuxholdings.co.za> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 19 Dec 2006 07:23:18.0857 (UTC) FILETIME=[8E78BB90:01C7233E] X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by robin.gentoo.org id kBJ7LRbP021544 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by robin.gentoo.org id kBJ7OdDB007508 X-Archives-Salt: 8d5bc5cc-421d-418a-b727-ebc4ed536370 X-Archives-Hash: ed38723a2c2793887f9d7df8e8e33310 On Monday 18 December 2006 20:54, Grant wrote: > I believe the great benefit of Gentoo is its flexibility, and > flexibility is like a meta-benefit because it makes possible any > other benefit. =A0What do you think makes Ubuntu the distro of the > moment? =A0Is it ease-of-use? =A0If Gentoo focused more on ease-of-use > aspects of the Ubuntu variety, they would attract more users and > thereby increase the rate of growth for the software. Ubuntu is popular because a South African Python-loving, Debian-using=20 billionaire astronaut who built Thawte from the ground up put up the=20 money for it. The result is that currently it's in fashion - the same=20 way that mini skirts and belly rings move in and out of fashion. This is not to distract from what Ubuntu has achieved - Mark gathered a=20 fine team to kick-start Ubuntu and they built a fine product which=20 people like. It's also targeted to a very different set of users than=20 gentoo. We had our time of being the latest cool thing two years ago=20 but don't make the mistake of thinking that because the fanboys went=20 somewhere else, that there's nothing left. The real core of gentoo, the=20 heart and soul of it the expertise behind it, is still there doing what=20 it always did - making ebuilds. The Linux landscape consists of about 50% of fickle idiots who chase=20 after the latest greatest rainbow. We have these because there is so=20 much choice out there. As a contrast, Windows doesn't have this because=20 there's nothing to choose from apart from standard Windows. Now, these=20 50% fanboys move around from distro to distro every 6 to 9 months if my=20 observations are accurate. What does this mean? Nothing. It *could*=20 mean that a new distro is well marketed and well thought of - that's=20 cool in the early days. When the fans move on to something new it=20 doesn't mean anything about the last cool thing, it simply means that=20 the fickle crowd have something new to go "ooh, wow!" about. In other=20 words, it's a reflection of a considerable user bases' fickleness, and=20 no reflection of any kind on the distro. Get over it, gentoo isn't going anywhere. It's perfectly capable of=20 coping with the creaks and groans of everyday life. alan --=20 gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list