[gentoo-amd64] Re: Why Is Gentoo So Far Behind?

[Duncan]

"Arttu V." <arttuv69@×××××.com> posted
fecdbac60906160403r3d81bdc3uedcb0f6c89b50a84@××××××××××.com, excerpted
below, on  Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:03:33 +0300:

> Yes, you test both new packages and new devs extensively. :D
>
> I think that was the crux of the last "low manpower" thread over at
> gentoo-dev couple months ago, when Mr Duncan was trying to find a way to
> become a dev without camping for hours in irc. :)

Interesting to see that come up here.  I guess I have mixed feelings 
about that exchange.  =:^s

But it's definitely encouraging to see someone was reading... and thought 
enough about it to mention it again weeks (two months already? maybe) 
later. Honestly, thanks.  =:^)

Meanwhile, I've decided that while as a user and my own sysadmin, Gentoo 
fits my automated but customizable ideal of a distribution like a glove, 
the same cannot be said about being a dev.

Technically, I may not be a wiz-kid, but I'm OK at it, enough to have 
been told by several that they'd be happy to mentor me as a Gentoo dev, 
even (funny how that works).  But socially, not so much.  My generation 
(I'm 42) was comfortable with email and usenet, but not so much with 
"instant" text technology IRC/IM/texting.  At least some of us are just 
too deliberative for it to work well.  And that seems to be where 
Gentoo's development is really at now days, both socially and 
technically.  So I'd not really fit in, regardless.  I still think it's 
stupid to on the one hand, complain about how short handed you are, while 
on the other, saying they'll reject a dev just because the applicant 
isn't interested in using a technology he's not comfortable with for what 
is after all, effectively a job interview, thus already a stressful 
situation.  Whatever.  Obviously no non-IRC user fits into their club, 
and I'm not going to spend further time trying to crash their party.

But I wasn't just asking for me, I was trying to nail down the answer for 
others that might be interested.  Which I effectively did.

Meanwhile, there's other projects and indeed, other parts of the Gentoo 
project, where I can contribute, and where those contributions do make a 
difference.  So that's what I'm focused on now.  (Presently, in addition 
to my Gentoo testing, bug reporting, and list activity, I'm active on the 
pan (gtk news client) lists, where I am I believe the senior active 
regular, and I run direct Linus git kernels, where I've reported and git-
bisected a number of bugs over the last several releases, such that among 
others, AMD 8000 chipset and Radeon r200 chip users specifically, have me 
to thank that the bugs were resolved before full version release. =:^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman