From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1I5m3J-0008B1-4E for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:20:37 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with SMTP id l63HJH1m029211; Tue, 3 Jul 2007 17:19:17 GMT Received: from wa-out-1112.google.com (wa-out-1112.google.com [209.85.146.181]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id l63HEAnU023279 for ; Tue, 3 Jul 2007 17:14:11 GMT Received: by wa-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id k34so2658108wah for ; Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:14:10 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=HOSwigwbS4NIHncqRsgrUR62Uhld1aXbL9yKu8rEvlcDyN2CSvDN1c77usfL4TZgIxP0ZvX1YnLcg67PO0bix28oYSh1rMqSkfLCyM62iEHWcFW+WxTo8D9sLeFfR2QOjJ2aVcweJGILO6krh5/VzzBfA/XU2rXVsO1fGba34GE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=L5RjG3QW+uhShwU7Juo1WsraBJegd7uKrAn2lH1QOEpieaPD09MkpxOe/QkhM0qTi65sb9HvOqlwjNW+ukh0fCty8Q8f+AUI3w2V9IYCjuzt+gQjORTKsu8t9rpGuGVYbAd2+dpn8Hn32D9HWhYGwmsjTcTwjMnHL/XSSphgLak= Received: by 10.115.55.1 with SMTP id h1mr6351676wak.1183482850096; Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:14:10 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.115.110.15 with HTTP; Tue, 3 Jul 2007 10:14:10 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <49bf44f10707031014l5c52585fo6087c9e4502bf401@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2007 10:14:10 -0700 From: Grant To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Is Gentoo Healthy? (The Return) In-Reply-To: <5bdc1c8b0707030946x5e951d3dg1c7dd261ee89f1d0@mail.gmail.com> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <49bf44f10707030907jaa9f524maef27beb2a7c9df@mail.gmail.com> <5bdc1c8b0707030946x5e951d3dg1c7dd261ee89f1d0@mail.gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: b37f9768-bffc-4841-b792-7d336b0b198c X-Archives-Hash: 0a5dfe2a29efa83969431491c3b63b06 > > In December 2006 I started a thread titled "Is Gentoo Healthy?" in > > which I was roundly put down for raising the possibility that the > > decline in the number of Gentoo users could possibly affect the > > remaining Gentoo users in a negative way. > > > > Is everyone still toeing that line? The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter > > hasn't been published in almost two months. Is Gentoo destined to be > > just another distro starved for contributors and struggling to stay up > > to date? If so, I really misjudged it. The meta approach of Gentoo > > is superior to any other in my mind, and I think it's growth and > > potential are being stunted by the "we don't need them" attitude which > > perpetuates Gentoo's lack of usability features for beginners. > > > > Gentoo needs as many users as possible to reach its potential. It's a > > short-sighted mistake to think that non-contributing users do Gentoo > > no good. Non-contributing users become contributors as time passes. > > Car mechanics all start as car drivers. > > > > - Grant > > Hi Grant, > I think Gentoo is 'healthy', in the sense that it continues to > thrive. On the other hand I have, over the last 6-9 months started to > think of Gentoo as 'mature'. The distro has apparently become what it > is going to be. While that may not be all I hoped for it is clearly > worth while and a contributing member of the group of Linux distros so > that's great. > > As a non-developer, general work-a-day Linux user I do feel that > Gentoo has lost some of its energy. Maybe that's all part of becoming > a mature distro. When I first started with Gentoo in (I think 2000) > this was a very lively place and it was clear that there was a real > push on to grow the tools, grow the distro, grow the user base. While > I think that today those metrics would still be considered valuable, > it is not my view that there is a lot of energy being put into taking > things to the next level. (Whatever the heck that might be!) > > Anyway, I value Gentoo greatly. It's been a really great distro to > me. Folks have treated a non-IT Linux dummy like me with great respect > and for the most part a pretty gentle hand. I've learned a lot when I > wanted to. The documentation, in my mind, is second to none which > makes my life easier. (Sometimes....) > > What's in Gentoo's future? I haven't a clue. I have wondered a few > times in the last year if I'd have to look for another distro one of > these days.....but I never have. Two to three years ago that thought > never entered my mind. Hey Mark, Thanks for the insight. I hope it never happens, but if the day comes when Gentoo suffers a lack of contributors to such an extent that I have to find a new distro, where will I go? Is Debian the only other meta-distro out there? It's not exactly thriving is it? Is the meta-distro concept perhaps flawed? The thought of installing the latest Ubuntu release, wading through a bunch of software I'll never use, and waiting for the next big release before anything is updated makes me wanna throw up. - Grant -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list