Re: [gentoo-user] Is Gentoo Healthy? (The Return)

["Mark Knecht" <markknecht@gmail.com>]

On 7/8/07, Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com> wrote:
> > The problem is if you focus on usability for newbies, you'll focus
> > less on features and customization, or you'll have to find a way to
> > hide this customizability because customization confuses newbies, and
> > spending time dancing around the lesser populace is time wasted on
> > doing practical stuff ( While I'll admit theres got to be a half-way,
> > or gentoo will never get any fresh blood, but I'd prefer to entice
> > fresh blood from people who have some potential to improve the distro
>
> Great post Kent.  I'd love to see more features to attract unskilled
> users, but I'd hate to have that slow down the development of features
> that I would actually use.
>
> The main camps we seem to be divided into are:
>
> 1. we don't want unskilled users
>
> and:
>
> 2. we do want unskilled users
>
> and most align with #1.  It will be interesting to see how it turns
> out.  I still think there is a huge long-term benefit to a large user
> base, even if many of those users start out unskilled.
>
> - Grant

Personally I don't think it's about Gentoo not wanting 'unskilled'
users, but that said I know I am an unskilled user in many eyes so I
suppose that's my survival instinct kicking in. ;-)

I think a more accurate message is 'Gentoo welcomes all, but as a
potential Gentoo user you must be willing to learn. Gentoo does not
attempt make *anything* 'easy or pretty' in preference to providing
complete control.' Add what you will. that's just a start.

My issues, as a low-end, non-power Gentoo user, is that there are some
applications that I'd absolutely love to run, such as mythfrontend via
a web browser, that continue to be beyond my skill set. I've worked
hours upon hours and failed. I know if I chose a different distro I
could run it out of the box. That done I'd lose portage and lots of
other things I really value far more so I forgo fun stuff to have a
really stable system. It's disappointing I don't have the skills to
make it work but I figure over time I can possibly gain them. It's
something to work toward, right?

- Mark
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