Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 8:09 PM Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Yea, -dev gets lively when someone steps on the toes of another dev but isn't that true about anywhere?  Gentoo is somewhat of a niche distro.
> I've commented on this elsewhere, but I think these two are related.
> With more mainstream binary distros a lot of differences of opinion
> result in forks.  Gentoo is really the only significant source-based
> distro out there, and we're basically minimally viable as it is, so
> there isn't much room for forking.  As a result we're just forced to
> work these sorts of issues out and come up with ways to coexist.
>
> Look at how many binary distros there are that are nearly identical
> except for their default desktop environment, or what they use for
> PID1, or some details around their QA/stabilization policy.  A distro
> like debian is big enough that if a bunch of people get ticked off
> with a decision you can fork it into two distros and they're each 3x
> as large as we are.  Do that 47 times and we end up with the situation
> we have in the linux world today.
>
> Certainly Gentoo hasn't be completely without forks, but very few have
> persisted, because we tend to try to let our users have it their way.
> So, if one user wants systemd-everything and another user wants to
> stick *systemd* in their INSTALL_MASK they don't have to have two
> different sets of devs independently maintaining every single other
> package to accomodate that preference.  Sure, not every option is
> equally well-supported, but that usually comes down to
> interest/manpower and rarely reflects some kind of top-down policy
> decision to forbid something.
>

When I said niche, I meant somewhat rare.  As you pointed out, Gentoo is
about the only source based distro available.  Pretty much everything
else is binary where you have few choices if any. I'm not sure if there
is another source based distro but I haven't looked.  I call it a niche
in what it provides but can also be a niche for what a user wants as well.

Since I been around a long while, I remember when -dev would be labeled
as not safe for work.  It was bad, really bad.  It made one glad that
they could only use keyboards instead of dueling pistols.  Then they
created moderators with people to enforce some rules.  It got better. 
Actually, a lot better.  Still, every once in a while, someone feels
someone else's foot on their toes and it gets a little tense. 
Eventually, it gets worked out and usually with a good result.  While I
tend to keep my anger in check, we all recall that hal thingy.  :-@  To
this day, I hate that thing.  Even tho I hated it, good things come from
it.  Eventually it was replaced with something . . . more sensible and
easier to work with.  I think these things make Gentoo stronger. 
Forking isn't really a option since it means a almost certain death of
the fork.  The only option, work toward a better solution, together.  I
monitor -dev so that I can see upcoming changes, like the switch to
python 3.7 that is coming soon.  It's interesting sometimes how a change
can cause fristion but generally ends up with a stronger Gentoo.  It
sort of forces people to work together even when they disagree.

This list is a lot like that.  How many times does a person ask how to
do something and get several different methods for doing it?  Some of
the time, the result is the same but the path there is different.  Each
one of those helps the person in need of help to learn something.  Heck,
I learn stuff all the time, keeping it in my head is difficult tho.  My
memory at times is bad enough that I created a text file with commands
that I just can't quite remember the details of.  Sometimes when someone
asks a question, I go take a peek to see if at some point it was
mentioned on this list.  If I find a close match, I post it.  Then
others post their methods.  In the end, a solution is found and we move
on to the next problem.  Same as -dev just different problems. 

I sometimes worry about Gentoo but it seems that every time things get
bumpy, something changes and Gentoo gets back to work and improves.  It
seems that is when a lot of good things happen.  While I don't want to
wish for those bumpy times, I do tend to like the part coming after
that.  :-D

Now if we can just get a decoder ring for the emerge error outputs.  :/ 
:-D

Dale

:-)  :-)