I'm a total ~ARCH user, just because part of me really loves the joys  
of debugging. Honestly, on the rare occasion that something doesn't  
work, I've found a lesson is best learned when it is necessary. So in  
short, a bug is just a chance to learn to do something slightly  
differently.

Anyway, for a low-spec system, installing from binaries when possible  
would probably be a good idea. Other than that, just be specific in  
what you want with your USE flags.

On Jan 20, 2009, at 4:16 PM, Nick Cunningham <nick@monkeydust.net>  
wrote:

>
>
> 2009/1/20 Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com>
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 2:36 PM, b.n. <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Mark Knecht ha scritto:
> >
> >>    The one thing I would respectfully suggest is that you carefully
> >> build your own portage overlay. My experience with Gentoo over the
> >> last few years is that there is a _anxiousness_ in the portage
> >> maintainer area to move newer revisions of software into portage
> >> quickly and then just as quickly to remove from portage what  
> users are
> >> currently using.
> >
> > Really?
> >
> > I am usually a bit annoyed by the contrary. On an almost 1-year old
> > Kubuntu (8.04 Hardy Heron) I can find packages that are just  
> barely x86
> > stable now on Gentoo.
> >
> > A couple of examples I am aware of:
> > Firefox 3: stable just since one month on Gentoo x86, was included  
> in KB8.04
> > Qtiplot: 0.9.x stable and working on KB8.04, all releases ~x86  
> (and a
> > hell to compile on a stable system -still didn't manage to do it)  
> in Gentoo.
> >
> > Python releases are often behind, and not mentioning KDE 4, which is
> > even default on 8.10 Kubuntu and on Gentoo was still hardmasked last
> > time I checked (but probably Gentoo is just right in this respect,
> > everyone keeps telling me to wait before digging into KDE 4).
> >
> > I fully understand that there are good reasons for that, and that  
> the
> > meta-distribution status of Gentoo makes harder to check packages  
> (and
> > also that the Ubuntu folks wildly release unstable stuff...  
> firefox 3 rc
> > in 8.04, for example). I just feel that (stable) Gentoo is  
> actually a
> > bit *behind* the average Linux distribution in its revisions of  
> software.
> >
> > Most importantly, I also feel that that's something new: when I  
> first
> > installed my system, more than 4 years ago, I felt it was *ahead*. I
> > wonder if it's due just to the sheer increase of work required to  
> test
> > packages, or if there are decisions behind that (or if it's just me
> > having false memories).
>
> When I first installed Gentoo a few years ago, I think I switched from
> x86 to ~x86 in the first 24 hours, for the very reason. I wanted to
> use the newest versions and the "stable" stuff was so old... It seems
> the majority of users are using ~arch these days.
>
>
> I see it as a good thing, a sign that Gentoo is maturing beyond just  
> being a 'ricing' distro. Its now possible to have the best of both  
> worlds, whether you want the stability of well tested packages from  
> ARCH, or the chance to get newer packages, but with a chance of bugs  
> and potential breakage by using ~ARCH.
>
> Im a happy ~ARCH user myself, and have been for a long time, however  
> i do stick to using plain ARCH on my little server just to keep it  
> stable and happy.
>
> - Nick