Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Re: Is GWN dead?

[Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>]

On Saturday 12 January 2008, Qian Qiao wrote:
> > I mean dealing with Gentoo components versions sounds sensible....
> > watching GRML/Knoppix/whatever website for a Gentoo
> > install...surely less.
>
> As I said in the thread earlier, do not bind your mind to the idea
> that "you need gentoo to install gentoo", the fact is, you don't. The
> installation steps from knoppixCD/GRML is almost identical to those
> from a Gentoo CD, with only one exception: they don't come with
> /mnt/gentoo, so you'll have to mkdir /mnt/gentoo, but if that makes
> it less sensible as you claimed, I'm afraid I can't agree.

Without trying to be a complete dick here, I think Gavelsky has not yet 
100% comprehended the essential difference between Gentoo and binary 
distros:

Gentoo is NOT "plug in and go", it is a complex scheme that allows you 
to build other distros. It is not suitable for newbies (disregard the 
occasional newbie that does get it right, that's a minority and very 
atypical), and one really does have to have moved beyond the "Oh, look! 
Shiny installer!" mentality to appreciate it. When you get to that 
stage, you appreciate that you need a bootstrap system to build the 
first stages of your own distro, and you can get that bootstrap system 
from any place you feel like getting it from.

Anybody that feels they *need* or *must have* an official Gentoo 
installer is probably the wrong target market and should be referred to 
other distros that will suit their needs better. This is not a troll or 
an elitist statement, it's just recognizing what gentoo is and what it 
isn't - it's not a distro suitable for someone to whom chroot isn't yet 
second nature.

I could give a traditional car analogy with kit cars, but I think I'm 
into dead horse territory already

alan



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Alan McKinnon
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
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