From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LVBIf-000211-FL for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:58:17 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3D59BE0271; Thu, 5 Feb 2009 20:57:46 +0000 (UTC) Received: from yw-out-1718.google.com (yw-out-1718.google.com [74.125.46.153]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 18B69E0271 for ; Thu, 5 Feb 2009 20:57:46 +0000 (UTC) Received: by yw-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id 5so217323ywm.46 for ; Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:57:45 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=COal4Aw6Ub9p0DKn/idyJXvwYqAuGVGfXqICCq5zjYo=; b=iSCwuQfP0NwQuUFpszOA87TGbDRVs4qNHA00COe7b+TLVZYkRaGDZp4Ps85gI1t5zL 0sHloYyNpWKR6dtaipEFs4TNCPEWPsrz8fXrGUxhqkUSWHMUYcFxSD52eOtlRXk3A60n ataYV8l4fOWNkPIOi0dkrwPxj+gxFjDJX0Lpc= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=soEkkfnk+1zFMJ85D0awwhikazX1L7jQCto0dr4MeZCtzoyGC6ssjZawyqeLHU0WRk 5XzPDg4EHOYzVWGha8QyKBK459vx03kdU2Q9pxfoOzPeS2hX2NLA7LpU7/wU0KVKnT3y 3kD8nDg8ztum5fuvq993JV2DJZ33IAEodjY3A= Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.142.177.5 with SMTP id z5mr514473wfe.90.1233867465313; Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:57:45 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <58965d8a0902051232u6ad8a601ge4b88791ddb36397@mail.gmail.com> References: <200902052010.25653.volkerarmin@googlemail.com> <200902052036.05303.volkerarmin@googlemail.com> <498B42D4.3060005@gmail.com> <5bdc1c8b0902051220m35e15s2171a98bba6cf82e@mail.gmail.com> <58965d8a0902051232u6ad8a601ge4b88791ddb36397@mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 12:57:45 -0800 Message-ID: <5bdc1c8b0902051257v68c80142x18d8902a3aa7f7c1@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Gentoo's advantage: 'optimized for your system' -- huh? From: Mark Knecht To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: 4432949d-449a-4920-bba4-c1040d716017 X-Archives-Hash: 87e0996ff61e2a44c8dbfd60f38cf805 On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 12:32 PM, Paul Hartman wrote: > On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Mark Knecht wrote: >> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 11:49 AM, Joshua D Doll wrote: >> >>> I think the Handbook and other Official gentoo docs are well and written. I >>> feel they are so well written and informative that a new user could read and >>> follow what the doc is trying to convey. >>> >>> >>> --Joshua Doll >> >> I agree. Everything except the grub part. It's well written but it >> requires more knowledge about the actual hardware than the rest of it, >> especially if you do it wrong and have to recover. > > I helped my brother install Ubuntu and the lack of control over grub > was frustrating. It just did what it wanted to do without asking > (which was install grub onto the wrong drive with the wrong drive > numbers, because the BIOS boot order did not match Ubuntu's detected > drive order). If that drive had been part of a RAID or had some > important metadata in the boot sector, it could have been a disaster. > > No distro is perfect. Gentoo is perfect for me, though :) I completely agree. I like the control also. I only took a *very* small exception to Joshua's statement that a 'new user' could read, follow it and understand what it's telling him/her to do and then do it and come out with a working machine. I think it's true if the new user builds exactly the 3 partition example shown in the docs and does *only* the very basic install on a machine that doesn't have Windows, etc. However I think that the docs (not the software!) could be improved to handle things like dual-boot, either another distro or windows, etc. which personally I think 'new users' come up against. Issues about stuff like where to put the MBR, why and why not to do that sort of thing, requires (or is vastly enhanced) if that new user has some knowledge about hard drives, booting, etc. - Mark