Re: [gentoo-user] Is Gentoo dead?

[Philip Webb <purslow@ca.inter.net>]

200421 Dale wrote ... :
> Rich Freeman wrote ... :
>> On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 9:49 PM Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
> ... I'm not sure why people keep thinking Gentoo is dying.
> Sometimes I think it is more about the difference
> between binary distros they are coming from
> and Gentoo being source-based than Gentoo actually dying.
> When people consider switching to Gentoo, it's different
> from what they expect.  They may need to research what Gentoo is first.
> Gentoo certainly doesn't hold a person's hand
> during the install or even after the install.

I agree with almost all of this dialog.
Just like Dale, I stumbled into Gentoo in 2003
after Mandrake was late (again) with a semi-annual update.
I tried a couple of other distros, but they didn't install properly,
so I tried the latest new fad Gentoo, followed the install guide
& suddenly found myself looking at a working system.
I've never wanted to use anything else since.

Gentoo is for people who want to run their own Linux systems,
not something someone else out there decided they ought to want.
It does involve a bit of work + responsibility :
my analogy has always been that M$/Mac are like living in a hotel,
Linux binary distros are like renting an apartment
& Gentoo is like owning your own house.

At first, I assumed Consus -- yet another silly pseudonym --
was a troll of the kind which does turn up here every couple of years,
but his remarks do suggest he's genuinely interested, if ignorant (smile).
Hopefully, he will learn how things get done, stay around & help out.

Gentoo does have a major weakness, which is the state of Portage.
It needs a thoro' rewrite, preferably in a faster language than Python.
I'm too old & it's a long time since I did any programming,
so No I'm not volunteering, but if we're lucky
someone -- M Gorny ? -- will get it started & others will join in.

Meanwhile, thanks yet again to all the devs for their unpaid work.

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