Re: [gentoo-amd64]

[Dustin J. Mitchell]

On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 09:02:05AM -0400, B. Nice wrote:
> > I also feel a little guilty that my only contribution as an AT is to
> > make fun of people trying to unsubscribe from the list.  It's not
> > exactly productive, and only serves to reinforce the bad rep that Gentoo
> > has.
> Where do people get the idea that Gentoo has a bad reputation?  I've

Well, keep in mind that I run in what is probably a slightly different
circle -- server admins.

Gentoo has a *lot* to recommend it technically for administering a
server -- fine-grained control, careful management of the upgrade path,
transparency, extensibility, etc.

But the cultural shift is painful when folks like me try to interact
with the Gentoo user or developer community.  I think I'm a fairly
technically adept person (hey, I passed the ebuild quiz), yet several of
my bugs have been blown off fairly rudely, by developers who had
obviously not read the entire bug.  Of course, interactions on IRC are
even worse.  

The result is that I don't file bugs anymore -- I make a fixed local
copy of the ebuild and call it a day.  Since I can't recommend that my
clients and employers do the same, I set them up with a RedHat-derived
base system and then hand-compile the necessary software on top of that.

By way of comparison, problems I have had with specific pieces of
business-critical software (vs. with the distro) have been handled with
professionalism and dignity.

Maybe the problem is that Gentoo devs are *too* accessible, and aren't
really given a choice in the matter.  Does e.g.,
https://bugzilla.novell.com/ see the same level of activity as Gentoo's?
I imagine that a lot of the grumpy devs would probably do well just
sitting in the background and coding.

Those are my musings..

Dustin

P.S. I should add that the amd64 group does not seem to share these
difficutlies -- this list is sometimes irreverent, but never insulting.
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