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Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:18:38 -0200
From: "Daniel da Veiga" <danieldaveiga@gmail.com>
To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Is Gentoo healthy?
In-Reply-To: <49bf44f10612181054s6e4f621dy17708692a71a25dd@mail.gmail.com>
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On 12/18/06, Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I've caught a whiff or two lately that Gentoo is declining in
> > > popularity amongst users and developers. Is it all in my head? I
> > > personally still love Gentoo.
> >
> > there are always several phases in the life of a distri.
> >
> > Beginning, when it becomes 'cool' and a sudden surge in users, some time of
> > high popularity, a decline, and at the end, only the users who are
> > really 'the right ones' for that kind of distri are left.
> >
> > So the 'always using the cool thing' users are gone and the 'we are using what
> > the cool guys were using' crowd is leaving now. So what? Are they important?
> > No. At some point ubuntu will suffer the same. And then the next cool distro
> > de jour.
> >
> > Some decline in user interest is normal - and a healthy process. Because it
> > removes the 'I use it because it is cool' and 'I use it because everybody
> > else uses it' type of users.
>
> I'm thinking this over a bit more, and it seems like the best thing
> for Gentoo (or any distro) is a lot of users. More users must mean
> more active developers, and more active developers must mean an
> increased rate of growth for the software.
Well, I must say not all users really add to the distro in any way...
>
> I believe the great benefit of Gentoo is its flexibility, and
> flexibility is like a meta-benefit because it makes possible any other
> benefit. What do you think makes Ubuntu the distro of the moment? Is
> it ease-of-use? If 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 there were thousands of articles over the
net and magazines making it sound like the "Linux that anyone can
use". It is true for MOST hardware/software combination, but once it
fails (and it will, eventually, every OS does), an unprepared user
would be just lost.
A great number of users grant your distro fame and sponsors, but most
of this users add nothing to the distro. Most don't even participate
in discussions like this one, that's focused on making the distro
better. C'mon, how many developers really watch their users mailing
lists and answer like Gentoo devs do?
I don't think easy-to-use makes a distro better. What makes it better
is a good documentation (and Gentoo has the best) and users willing to
go read a little before crying out that it doesn't work, adding stuff
to the wikis and forums and helping each other. In my sincere opinion,
Gentoo may have less users than other distros, but we have the best
users around ;-)
>
> Popular migration from one distro to the next sends a very important
> signal to any distro that wants to grow.
>
Well, IMHO it doesn't.
--
Daniel da Veiga
Computer Operator - RS - Brazil
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