Hi all,
   I just read the IBM DW article about gentoo and I am impressed by the goals of this project.  My first unix on x86 was FreeBSD
way back when and I remeber the days when I could only get BSDI/ FreeBSD drivers for the sync cards.  Now its the opposite. I miss
walking up to any FreeBSD box and finding the right /etc/ files the first try.

   I've been working with "Internet Appliances" and in contrast to thier simplified admin push I feel that the Linux/Redhat SysV
init is getting very complicated.  I just downloaded e-smith (www.e-smith.com) which address this problem with some internesting
perl scripts that massage the /etc/ files based on user input from a webpage / console and a series of templates.  I though this was
a good solution at first, but I guess a better solution would be to simplify the init first!

   So basically can someone give me a brief overview as to what you guys mean by "Simplified SysV-style initialization scripts"?

  Also where can I find out more about "Portage"?  Can I rsync the source tree and make world?  What is meant by merging the package
and why do I have to unmerge afterwards? Should I just install it and read the man pages?

  Is Java running on rc3?

 I have a PII/400 with an AMI RAID card setup as a testing machine. I was going to use it for e-smith, but I'd like to try this
first.  Are there any RAID issues on install?


Thanks,
-Aaron Held


===================================================================
As Isaac Newton would say now:
        If I see further than others, it is because I stand on
        the shoulders of giants too dumb to patent their discoveries.
  (Gregory Palast, http://www.observer.co.uk/ )