[gentoo-dev] Big change ideea

[Alexandru Mincu]

Hi all,
I sent this earlier and it wasn't received so I resend it now...

I don't know if this has come up before so excuse me if I am repeating.
I recently stumbled upon the following Linux distribution:
http://www.gobolinux.org/
They have an idea that Mac OS X implemented it when it first came out to
be more user friendly.
They are trying to remove the old UNIX file system scheme with the/bin
/etc /usr /var, etc directories and are trying to implement a little
more intuitive version of the file system hierarchy.
I know the opinions on this are shared and some people like the old
arrangement, but believe me I've seen lots of new users that come to
Linux and don't understand a thing from the file system arrangement. I
for one have learned this very well and I get used to it, but for the
normal user things should be intuitive ...
The compatibility problem can be solved by creating links for each
directory in the old scheme to a new one that contains links to
programs,libs,etc each in their place.
I think Gentoo has the power to give the user this choice, and since
Gentoo it's all about choices I think the developers here can make this
happen and make it well.
I propose a new USE flag or any other option that portage supports and
the modifications needed to install each program in it's directory and
create the links to their places.
I want to ask the developer community if it is willing to put this in
practice and give the Gentoo users another choice to make their Linux
system the way they want it and like and understand it and not the way
others do or did.

Thanks all,
Alex.