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 4.43) id 1E9xAi-0005og-CM for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 30 Aug 2005 03:52:28 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with SMTP id j7U3nYXu027012; Tue, 30 Aug 2005 03:49:34 GMT Received: from zproxy.gmail.com (zproxy.gmail.com [64.233.162.199]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id j7U3jvnd027340 for ; Tue, 30 Aug 2005 03:45:58 GMT Received: by zproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id x7so727266nzc for ; Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:47:59 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references; b=T1jod2+W3bx3Slur5/S/uuwmtKCV7nxiY2yMImaIuB8CdZof9I765LbVvJTZ4tiAYy/TxyMKXe7tFNKn8FEQ/nkhXRtWLTq6mZzN4Io1PVoGt4b2fOjzM7TDo9dOqpRV3oBKIuVmVUzYnCj//M81cbhR+YSrDYKbYiLewNGRkTs= Received: by 10.36.79.2 with SMTP id c2mr1395419nzb; Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:47:59 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.36.7.18 with HTTP; Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:47:59 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <558b73fb0508292047777c1a28@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 23:47:59 -0400 From: Michael Crute To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] many packages are available in gentoo? In-Reply-To: <20050829163111.7519be94@snowdrop.home> 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: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_Part_1011_18456968.1125373679849" References: <1125224277.5526.57.camel@rattus.localdomain> <20050829163111.7519be94@snowdrop.home> X-Archives-Salt: ebae9903-42aa-48f1-b564-a7cb4291d00a X-Archives-Hash: cd7a848be1b36b8b270f1f270414966b ------=_Part_1011_18456968.1125373679849 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline On 8/29/05, Ciaran McCreesh wrote: >=20 >=20 > Note that such a number wouldn't be useful for comparing with, say, > other distributions or ports, because a) we can SLOT things, so we > don't need separate foo-1, foo-2 and foo-3 packages, and b) we don't > need to do a zillion foo, foo-python, foo-perl etc packages because of > USE flags. >=20 Some wise person once said that "Its not the size of the tool its how well= =20 it works." I think that perhaps all this fuss over how many packages are in= =20 the repository is kind of pointless. The issue is really does it work for= =20 your use. Sure Fedora may have 6 billion packages but if it lacks the ONE= =20 packages that you need to do that job and its not easy to create a package= =20 for it then by golly Fedora isn't very useful. From personal experience I= =20 find it much easier to create ebuilds for non standard packages than it is= =20 to create RPMs plus the Portage tree has most of the packages I need by=20 default (and as an added bonus I don't have to hunt down a thousand=20 dependencies to install a single package). So instead of comparing raw numbers think about this... Does it work for=20 you? In non-standard situations is it easy to get it to do what you want it= =20 to do? If the answer to both is yes I think that says far more about the=20 distro than the size of its repository. Just my $0.02 -Mike --=20 ________________________________ Michael E. Crute Software Developer SoftGroup Development Corporation Linux, because reboots are for installing hardware. "In a world without walls and fences, who needs windows and gates?" ------=_Part_1011_18456968.1125373679849 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline On 8/29/05, Ciaran McCreesh <ciaranm@gentoo.org> wrote:

Note that such a number wouldn't be useful for comparing with, say,
= other distributions or ports, because a) we can SLOT things, so we
don't= need separate foo-1, foo-2 and foo-3 packages, and b) we don't
need to = do a zillion foo, foo-python, foo-perl etc packages because of
USE flags.

Some wise person once said that "Its not the size of the tool its how well it works." I think that perhaps all this fuss over how many packages are in the repository is kind of pointless. The issue is really does it work for your use. Sure Fedora may have 6 billion packages but if it lacks the ONE packages that you need to do that job and its not easy to create a package for it then by golly Fedora isn't very useful. From personal experience I find it much easier to create ebuilds for non standard packages than it is to create RPMs plus the Portage tree has most of the packages I need by default (and as an added bonus I don't have to hunt down a thousand dependencies to install a single package).

So instead of comparing raw numbers think about this... Does it work for you? In non-standard situations is it easy to get it to do what you want it to do? If the answer to both is yes I think that says far more about the distro than the size of its repository. Just my $0.02

-Mike

--
________________________________
Micha= el E. Crute
Software Developer
SoftGroup Development Corporation
<= br>Linux, because reboots are for installing hardware.
"In a world = without walls and fences, who needs windows and gates?" ------=_Part_1011_18456968.1125373679849-- -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list