Hi,

I've been thinking about Gentoo Linux for some time. I first installed
it a year ago, and I really liked it
(http://www.manuzhai.nl/weblog/related.keyword/gentoo-linux/). Since
then, I've installed it on my server and am in the process of getting a
workable desktop-installation on my workstation. I wonder about this,
though: do I really need the Portage tree.

I emerge sync my server about daily and my desktop somewhat irregular,
and I wonder: why do I have to do this. It seems (and I might be wrong
on this one) that I really only need package names, version numbers and
dependencies. These could easily be listed in a XML file (per category,
for example), which means I'd just have to download a few XML files
every time instead of having to rsync. I think the bandwidth use may be
equivalent, but mirroring would be a lot simpler and less CPU-intensive
if you just need to have a couple of XML files and a httpd.

So rephrasing my question: why do I have to download all these ebuilds
for software I never use? Just seems silly.

Regards,

Manuzhai



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