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 1I5lhD-0000lG-Up for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:57:48 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with SMTP id l63Gtn5c010508; Tue, 3 Jul 2007 16:55:49 GMT Received: from wa-out-1112.google.com (wa-out-1112.google.com [209.85.146.176]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id l63Gk7di029711 for ; Tue, 3 Jul 2007 16:46:07 GMT Received: by wa-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id k34so2647400wah for ; Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:46:06 -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=FvzXxPIBNhQ+8V12ROYJGGzdtGFZcCHjtNfScHxb3sXaGq+DqqeUNxwn79AANcXf/H1WujD0V4kw4EXUgB8f8qQd1YD4M2DLT/rqdyuqEmi77fo8TyxDsTutC2h4eyo9wz574sfVUZyFXafhCjSvEEAbYafiOYx29ZP/GemFoEE= 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=JqvSV4+fx900GoMrKvZ9ihQJf/cXLFsLt08xECmLDmEHCqk5yzwDjQReg7KZFYs4R0rtUyIgCvkSC3Zjy+299qeApbNsvcXK7/uJkrudAilkJvVBFxpYT3IWEXAGfLzXtKmhVxj3i+F0u/fGZtlzXGajyTquR2a1SZJ8avYSDvs= Received: by 10.114.197.1 with SMTP id u1mr6340656waf.1183481166191; Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:46:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.115.78.10 with HTTP; Tue, 3 Jul 2007 09:46:06 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <5bdc1c8b0707030946x5e951d3dg1c7dd261ee89f1d0@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2007 09:46:06 -0700 From: "Mark Knecht" To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Is Gentoo Healthy? (The Return) In-Reply-To: <49bf44f10707030907jaa9f524maef27beb2a7c9df@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> X-Archives-Salt: d07e541d-6d1d-4d3c-a704-519728fdb6fa X-Archives-Hash: 05769bd4c4f584ba10326078d70d2615 On 7/3/07, Grant wrote: > 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. Cheers, Mark -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list