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 1RZS3a-0007XQ-L5 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:53:58 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 6705221C093; Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:53:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-bw0-f53.google.com (mail-bw0-f53.google.com [209.85.214.53]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 102ED21C040 for ; Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:52:49 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bkat8 with SMTP id t8so4696144bka.40 for ; Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:52:49 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=8TDlBhSybHI3/iX+Pqk1mxINAwoJqgdlAZKqmeJOHzM=; b=gppVgt1Zr8rZbT2Xa4DLUgYZi2n9xI3FN8hpG0+1ffLYEjoa/bkU0Nql8fLBVthtHk /TLA/t+8KlygARqcgzJk9ZSfStNlkBRcRBThj4gRYqfrgk8h2llGal/YI7tFvbFPoIaw 6MwBER+Ymug2ro4XfuNOXoXui7afbPwc0P+dY= 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 10.204.9.208 with SMTP id m16mr4199823bkm.34.1323543169108; Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:52:49 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.204.226.72 with HTTP; Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:52:48 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: References: <201112082009.36698.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> <20111208221108.GF13528@eisen.lan> Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:52:48 -0500 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: can one tell me: gentoo vs opensuse From: Michael Mol To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: b2efaa57-e0fb-42ed-86bd-97466a8db7fc X-Archives-Hash: 2c2be3df3da866099cc5f734f04f1534 On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 12:39 PM, Pandu Poluan wrote: > On Dec 11, 2011 12:02 AM, "Grant Edwards" wro= te: >> On 2011-12-10, Pandu Poluan wrote: >> >> > And even you can't guarantee that the kernels are the same. Many distr= os >> > introduce their own distro-specific patches to the vanilla kernel. >> >> RedHat is particularly bad about this. =C2=A0I maintain a couple Linux >> drivers that have to work with a wide range of kernel versions. =C2=A0Th= ere >> are lot's of #ifdef's that depend on not only the kernel and some of >> them also have to check whether it's a _RedHat_ kernel or not, since >> RedHat is fond of shipping a kernel with version X.Y.Z that isn't even >> close to compatible with the driver API for vanilla kernel X.Y.Z. >> >> > With Gentoo, it's even more complicated, as most experienced >> > Gentooroids will configure and compile their own kernels. >> >> I've never had to add special code to a driver to handle the Gentoo >> version of a kernel. >> > > Ah, I see that I might have misconstrued myself. My bad. > > Regarding drivers: usually they're no big deal, since the 'infrastructure= ' > portions of the kernel (e.g., SCSI disk support) are most likely have bee= n > enabled. > > For most applications, usually they don't really care what's in the kerne= l > since they operate at a quite high-level. > > Problems might arise though if you're doing exotic things. For example: I= f I > built the IPset portion as 'built-in' into the kernel, I won't be able to > install xtables-addons. This is due to the package wanting to install its > own set of IPset modules. > > Fortunately, such cases are few and far between in the Gentooverse. Peopl= e > doing exotic things are naturally expected to Know What They Are Doing=E2= =84=A2 :-) Speaking from experience, the real difficulty is knowing that you're doing something exotic. Once you find out, you generally have two options: Follow the route most people go (such as is happening with udev), or help fix the system so that your desired approach still works (such as the fellow who's been working with mdev). If you're constantly exploring, you'll very likely hit the exotic edge cases, but then that's going to be part of learning the thing you're exploring. Gentoo can be really great for that. Even better, in that it's often not that hard (after a while) to help smooth those edges, making it easier to go on exploring. --=20 :wq