Re: [gentoo-user] Anxiousness? [was:Tips/Tricks for Gentoo on low-spec computer?]

[Nick Cunningham <nick@monkeydust.net>]

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2009/1/20 Paul Hartman
<paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com<paul.hartman%2Bgentoo@gmail.com>
>

> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 2:36 PM, b.n. <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Mark Knecht ha scritto:
> >
> >>    The one thing I would respectfully suggest is that you carefully
> >> build your own portage overlay. My experience with Gentoo over the
> >> last few years is that there is a _anxiousness_ in the portage
> >> maintainer area to move newer revisions of software into portage
> >> quickly and then just as quickly to remove from portage what users are
> >> currently using.
> >
> > Really?
> >
> > I am usually a bit annoyed by the contrary. On an almost 1-year old
> > Kubuntu (8.04 Hardy Heron) I can find packages that are just barely x86
> > stable now on Gentoo.
> >
> > A couple of examples I am aware of:
> > Firefox 3: stable just since one month on Gentoo x86, was included in
> KB8.04
> > Qtiplot: 0.9.x stable and working on KB8.04, all releases ~x86 (and a
> > hell to compile on a stable system -still didn't manage to do it) in
> Gentoo.
> >
> > Python releases are often behind, and not mentioning KDE 4, which is
> > even default on 8.10 Kubuntu and on Gentoo was still hardmasked last
> > time I checked (but probably Gentoo is just right in this respect,
> > everyone keeps telling me to wait before digging into KDE 4).
> >
> > I fully understand that there are good reasons for that, and that the
> > meta-distribution status of Gentoo makes harder to check packages (and
> > also that the Ubuntu folks wildly release unstable stuff... firefox 3 rc
> > in 8.04, for example). I just feel that (stable) Gentoo is actually a
> > bit *behind* the average Linux distribution in its revisions of software.
> >
> > Most importantly, I also feel that that's something new: when I first
> > installed my system, more than 4 years ago, I felt it was *ahead*. I
> > wonder if it's due just to the sheer increase of work required to test
> > packages, or if there are decisions behind that (or if it's just me
> > having false memories).
>
> When I first installed Gentoo a few years ago, I think I switched from
> x86 to ~x86 in the first 24 hours, for the very reason. I wanted to
> use the newest versions and the "stable" stuff was so old... It seems
> the majority of users are using ~arch these days.
>
>
I see it as a good thing, a sign that Gentoo is maturing beyond just being a
'ricing' distro. Its now possible to have the best of both worlds, whether
you want the stability of well tested packages from ARCH, or the chance to
get newer packages, but with a chance of bugs and potential breakage by
using ~ARCH.

Im a happy ~ARCH user myself, and have been for a long time, however i do
stick to using plain ARCH on my little server just to keep it stable and
happy.

- Nick

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