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

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

On Saturday 12 January 2008, Qian Qiao wrote:
> I can understand why you guys think we are so compelled to have a
> Gentoo LiveCD, because every other OS does, and to be honest, that is
> exactly the reason that stops you guys thinking out of the box, in
> what way is being able to install Gentoo from any LiveCD/distro a bad
> thing? In everyway it should be considered one of Gentoo's strengths?

Joe,

You have hit the nail on the head. The users around here pushing the 
idea to have an install CD just do not get it, and are probably 
*not*able* to think out the box. They can comprehend is "Gentoo = 
Gentoo install CD", precisely because virtually every other OS does it 
this way. And they have been indoctrinated to think this is the only 
way it can work, or they have drunk the PR department Kool-Aid or 
suffer from Red Hat Inc.'s major disease - Not Invented Here syndrome.

I've had hundreds of people pass through my Linux sysadmin courses, and 
guess which concept they have most trouble grasping? It's not how 
initrd works, Xen, or LVM (the usual assumed suspects), it's how do you 
manage to use an Ubuntu LiveCD to fix a broken Red Hat system? Or how 
did I install Red Hat using Ubuntu as a bootstrap system (possible, but 
waaaaaay more trouble than it's worth)

Such people should probably be running Ubuntu or a binary distro as they 
don't fit the profile of gentoo's target audience. Before anyone flames 
me to oblivion for insulting them, it's not an insult. I just recognize 
that you want to buy a high performance passenger car, and gentoo sells 
an experimental plane in kit form.

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
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