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On 31 May 2011 14:38, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> Apparently, though unproven, at 14:30 on Tuesday 31 May 2011, Alex Schuster |
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> did opine thusly: |
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> |
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>> Alan McKinnon writes: |
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>> > Apparently, though unproven, at 01:28 on Friday 27 May 2011, Kevin |
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>> > |
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>> > O'Gorman did opine thusly: |
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>> > > It looks like it's time to take Gentoo off of my main machine. I feel |
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>> > > a little sad about it, or I'd just quietly go away. |
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>> > |
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>> > |
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>> > |
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>> > I know how you feel :-) |
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>> > |
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>> > |
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>> > |
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>> > I've tried to get away from Gentoo several times, and failed. The amount |
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>> > of work we all put into keeping things working is best described as "bat |
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>> > shit crazy", but we do it anyway. Maybe it's like a drug thing, we all |
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>> > need a daily fix or we need to prove we can still do it. |
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>> |
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>> I tried various distros (SuSE, Debian, Mandrake, Libranet, RedHat), but |
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>> when I started using Gentoo, I was hooked. No fancy shmancy GUIs that |
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>> hide what's really going on beneath, and that often enough have their own |
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>> bugs so that it's easier to not use them. Rolling updates, no fear that |
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>> upgrades mess up everything. Good documentation, that explains what has do |
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>> be done and why, instead of just telling me what to do and where to click. |
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> |
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> That's what keep me on Gentoo for my own machines (bar one) and I have never |
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> needed to re-install it anywhere. |
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> |
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> But at work, things are different. Gentoo is banned from the -prod machines |
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> (the risk of some n00b admin running "emerge uND world" and walking away is |
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> too great, plus even just (deep) upgrading a single package is often more than |
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> a reasonable amount of work for someone who doesn't know portage. |
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> |
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> It's encouraged on -dev, mostly because I can change versions of almost |
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> anything with no hassle at all. A developer wants python-3.2 on a box that |
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> already has 2.4 and 2.7? No problem! |
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> |
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> I do run Ubuntu on the netbook, but I treat that like it was an Android device |
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> or a big web browser i.e. I don't try and get fancy and mostly stick with what |
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> the installer and apt want to do. |
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|
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These days I install OpenSUSE, CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu on *other* |
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people's machines. I found out really early in the process of |
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becoming familiar with Linux that Gentoo is the only self-healing OS |
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for me. ;-) |
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|
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I had to reinstall Fedora twice, OpenSUSE 3 times and Ubuntu twice, |
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because they kept corrupting themselves. Perhaps things have improved |
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since (well I know that Ubuntu has improved significantly over the |
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years) but nothing gives me the flexibility and breadth of choice that |
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Gentoo does. |
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|
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On the other hand if one's needs are simple or conveniently met by the |
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vanilla Ubuntu or other binary distro, then perhaps that's all they |
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need to bother with. Updates are done in a matter of seconds and |
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complete version upgrades completed in a matter of minutes. I was |
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actually quite impressed last time that Ubuntu upgraded itself without |
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breaking into a sweat. Given past experience I was expecting it to |
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corrupt itself and not boot again without a bare bones reinstall - but |
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was proven wrong! |
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-- |
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Regards, |
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Mick |
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