Re: [gentoo-user] Do we have to build gcc with fortran now?

[Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 6:38 AM, Todd Goodman <tsg@bonedaddy.net> wrote:
> * Mike Edenfield <kutulu@kutulu.org> [110624 08:25]:
>> On 6/24/2011 8:03 AM, Todd Goodman wrote:
>> > * Mike Edenfield<kutulu@kutulu.org>  [110623 18:34]:
>>
>> >> It's one package (cantor) that has one dependency (R) that is optional
>> >> (USE=-R) that falls squarely into the "if you aren't sure if you need it
>> >> then you probably don't" category. So for most users, no, you don't need
>>
>> > What seems strange then is that if everyone keeps telling Dale that he
>> > most likely doesn't need cantor and R then why is R enabled in the
>> > profile by default?
>>
>> It's not enabled in the profile, it's enabled in the ebuild:
>>
>> IUSE="debug ps +R"
>>
>> and likely for the same reason there's a scary warning. If
>> you're installing cantor, because you plan to use it (and
>> not because kde-meta is a bloat monster), you need one of
>> the two backends to make it work. R is the preferred option
>> there, so the cantor maintainers assume "if you want cantor,
>> you probably want R", and the cascade begins.
>>
>> --Mike
>
> Ah, OK.  So it really comes down to "kde-meta is a bloat monster."
>
> Thanks,
>
> Todd

Or maybe 'kde-meta as currently constructed by someone somewhere is a
bloat monster in some other people's opinions'. And, we're not
required to use it.

Maybe it happens somewhere but I don't know of any truly interactive
user driven process that decides what gets included in any ebuild. It
is driven more by our kind devs by whatever decision process they use.
I'm *perfectly* fine with that.

To some Gentoo users anything on the system that they don't actively
use is bloat. I understand. To others, myself included, I don't mind
if there's a bunch of extra stuff on my system if it makes some
developer's life easier. 95% of what I do in KDE is run Firefox or a
VM for trading futures and the balance is mostly use a terminal to
maintain my systems. I use Skype a little, backup to a few different
external hard drives. Sometimes I play solitaire. Nearly all of my
media watching is done in a VM due to NetFlix not supporting anything
that runs native on Linux, although I do use xine to watch the
occasional DVD from NetFlix that only I want to watch.

I don't share desktops, share or mount anything natively Windows. I
don't use Konqueror or KDE Mail. I use almost nothing in the KDE Menus
for Development, Education, Games, Graphics, Multimedia or Office.

And I also don't care enough to do anything about trying to maintain a
'smaller' KDE footprint on my machine because the code builds plenty
fast and I don't want to use my time that way.

This is just my 'life can be simple' strategy. It works for me and has
allowed me to drop about 40 pounds of bloat in the last 8 months.
Blood pressure is down. I sleep better. I don't sweat the small stuff
as much.

Again, this is just me...

- Mark