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 1I7bQN-00070e-Sh for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 08 Jul 2007 18:24:00 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with SMTP id l68IMipW018828; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 18:22:44 GMT Received: from ik-out-1112.google.com (ik-out-1112.google.com [66.249.90.177]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id l68IFdSO007082 for ; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 18:15:39 GMT Received: by ik-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id c29so538265ika for ; Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:15:38 -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=dfjBW6nBzkRynlrwoanq5H6K++owT9ewaE4Z+xFcQem66pDeJuyokRTw4W2/3xqiqgf6ekErc654XmXwdUPOktcPpQQeZzeVYDFuInhD+XjQrQ4GtyTXg4HqGgVEsvMKbfPEZsPVDrlrlqb4oP0PqfeKC+RSAsbF4KvFl93Ir9E= 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=K+kJmTL9hbQhi8qK82yFjASxieI1sLUEelfSGNsaODl7p4jW82j6bcwfyabK4eHaXZSe4LCs8pc8D2o15wB1RIi3lElfneMn7jkFC7KT5+NGX2Ki6cgonQjHUnGkarhlo3+QBBBOz6Ndfc3nvmgt4xw56/9n7tmiYcFbsjfng3w= Received: by 10.78.180.16 with SMTP id c16mr1163741huf.1183918538448; Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:15:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.78.42.11 with HTTP; Sun, 8 Jul 2007 11:15:38 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <5bdc1c8b0707081115j6a11aab2we4321296ff7c5c2d@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2007 11:15:38 -0700 From: "Mark Knecht" To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Is Gentoo Healthy? (The Return) In-Reply-To: <49bf44f10707080948v51af712cscf71841b2fbbf6ab@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> <8cd1ed20707032351g5e491506n8cae6a200fd66d49@mail.gmail.com> <49bf44f10707080948v51af712cscf71841b2fbbf6ab@mail.gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: dcf8ce3d-f984-4cbe-847b-b8cd2143193a X-Archives-Hash: 0ed59d6175e55ccf7ec9dea3d23d22a0 On 7/8/07, Grant 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 -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list