From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1QRQB1-0002tl-Jy for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 31 May 2011 14:44:11 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id D74081C006; Tue, 31 May 2011 14:42:29 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-gw0-f53.google.com (mail-gw0-f53.google.com [74.125.83.53]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A978D1C006 for ; Tue, 31 May 2011 14:42:29 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gwj20 with SMTP id 20so2529698gwj.40 for ; Tue, 31 May 2011 07:42:29 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date :message-id:subject:from:to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=T9i+ygBZ3YoM7y8GppmoSwADa/Tn6c0v3YzriupUolo=; b=WXEl4rSUCuipmGxn/oCoc+3vkXWz+G0Q4cmoygiY5Exu3P1QRH0aQ/SP2OeOWAoKZS eiNwoFtU/RrFjdVLLwBdmBhiBXfcUu6jdF7EtX1Yrez244ZN3V/hcAAMn62k7AFeAz9Y 97z8eh4RrIt+a7YOR59VCy2LdBU+sWxBpLrIk= 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=qFZbTeNOJ8g8rvwdXZ0bmVKX6GBn8veUqkq2+Ll+5hhDCV0Y82/TyJVxNje8i3ekMG 2HcfQ7gpzNppSPUhlySlWOCnoV7fjUP4A+l4Bno+gPhTzDp1C2Zk9NE+WwGAxvqKnm6T +gV8SI/PJGvrI33YB3lsDVB9/aYdo1TkzI7TQ= 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 10.101.153.1 with SMTP id f1mr3937459ano.51.1306852948879; Tue, 31 May 2011 07:42:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.101.95.4 with HTTP; Tue, 31 May 2011 07:42:28 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <201105311538.30828.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> References: <201105311430.56368.wonko@wonkology.org> <201105311538.30828.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 15:42:28 +0100 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Goodbye, Gentoo From: Mick To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: e15271659f3f8947dffbeaf72ed0a532 On 31 May 2011 14:38, Alan McKinnon wrote: > Apparently, though unproven, at 14:30 on Tuesday 31 May 2011, Alex Schust= er > did opine thusly: > >> Alan McKinnon writes: >> > Apparently, though unproven, at 01:28 on Friday 27 May 2011, Kevin >> > >> > O'Gorman did opine thusly: >> > > It looks like it's time to take Gentoo off of my main machine. =A0I = feel >> > > a little sad about it, or I'd just quietly go away. >> > >> > >> > >> > I know how you feel :-) >> > >> > >> > >> > I've tried to get away from Gentoo several times, and failed. The amou= nt >> > of work we all put into keeping things working is best described as "b= at >> > shit crazy", but we do it anyway. Maybe it's like a drug thing, we all >> > need a daily fix or we need to prove we can still do it. >> >> I tried various distros (SuSE, Debian, Mandrake, Libranet, RedHat), but >> when =A0I started using Gentoo, I was hooked. No fancy shmancy GUIs that >> hide what's really going on beneath, and that often enough have their ow= n >> bugs so that it's easier to not use them. Rolling updates, no fear that >> upgrades mess up everything. Good documentation, that explains what has = do >> be done and why, instead of just telling me what to do and where to clic= k. > > That's what keep me on Gentoo for my own machines (bar one) and I have ne= ver > needed to re-install it anywhere. > > But at work, things are different. Gentoo is banned from the -prod machin= es > (the risk of some n00b admin running "emerge uND world" and walking away = is > too great, plus even just (deep) upgrading a single package is often more= than > a reasonable amount of work for someone who doesn't know portage. > > It's encouraged on -dev, mostly because I can change versions of almost > anything with no hassle at all. A developer wants python-3.2 on a box tha= t > already has 2.4 and 2.7? No problem! > > I do run Ubuntu on the netbook, but I treat that like it was an Android d= evice > or a big web browser i.e. I don't try and get fancy and mostly stick with= what > the installer and apt want to do. These days I install OpenSUSE, CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu on *other* people's machines. I found out really early in the process of becoming familiar with Linux that Gentoo is the only self-healing OS for me. ;-) I had to reinstall Fedora twice, OpenSUSE 3 times and Ubuntu twice, because they kept corrupting themselves. Perhaps things have improved since (well I know that Ubuntu has improved significantly over the years) but nothing gives me the flexibility and breadth of choice that Gentoo does. On the other hand if one's needs are simple or conveniently met by the vanilla Ubuntu or other binary distro, then perhaps that's all they need to bother with. Updates are done in a matter of seconds and complete version upgrades completed in a matter of minutes. I was actually quite impressed last time that Ubuntu upgraded itself without breaking into a sweat. Given past experience I was expecting it to corrupt itself and not boot again without a bare bones reinstall - but was proven wrong! --=20 Regards, Mick