Re: [gentoo-user] Anxiousness? [was:Tips/Tricks for Gentoo on low-spec computer?]

[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.