Re: [gentoo-user] The future of linux, and Gentoo specifically now

["Marc Stürmer" <mail@marc-stuermer.de>]

Am 24.11.2014 um 19:25 schrieb Gevisz:

> I switched from Ubuntu 10.04 to Gentoo just because it forced closing
> window button "x" to the upper-left corner of the window in Unity of
> Ubuntu 12.04 while I used to look for it in the upper-right corner. :)
>
> So, I see no reason that those that hate systemd would not do the same.

I also did for my own server.

But the real strength and home of Debian on a server is in the corporate 
environment, and in a CE you are facing other challenges, namely:

* long term support (meaning for a few years),
* stable releases with a more or less stable and predictable release cycle,
* steady stream of security updates as long as the release is being 
supported.

Which also explains why in that field so many people are so heavily 
against SystemD, because it is still:

* quite a young software project, which needs more time to mature in 
their eyes,
* still a fast moving target, with adding more features over features 
with every new release,
* maybe also the philosophical aspect that it violates one of the 
primary paradigms of UNIX: do one thing only and do that well,
* and it forces them to learn a new way to configure their system, if 
they would use it.

> I disagree: the downloading all that crap also takes a lot of time.

Downloading binaries takes of course some time, yes. But downloading 
e.g. the source code of Chromium compared to the binary of Chromium does 
take a multiply longer. And after the download of the binary you just 
need to unpack it and are ready to run it, on Gentoo you need to compile 
it.

So binaries are by every mean faster to download and run than 
downloading the source, compiling it and then running it on a server. 
Even downloading the biggest archives and installing (without 
configuration) is normally done in under one minute. That's the time 
saving aspect, and you got no broken ebuilds. Of course you got another 
can of worms that may be bug you instead.

And if you don't like the example of Chromium, then take MySQL e.g. 
instead.

People in a CE rarely have the time to deal with the added complicity of 
Gentoo compared to binary based distributions, and therefore Gentoo just 
don't fit for most of them.

The thing is: compiling your own binaries on a production server is 
something many people won't like, because it takes power from the other 
processes away for that time.

And having a fully fledged C/C++ compiler running on your server is a 
security hole, if you are paranoid enough.

Of course you could setup just a compiling server for all of your other 
servers, but this takes time and adds complexity.

> Steady "release cycle" is also not so good.

It depends on your case.

All the major BSDs, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD, have had a steady 
release cycle - a new release every half year - for almost two decades 
now and they are content with that.