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On 12/24/2009 3:01 AM, Duncan wrote: |
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> But the point is, there's no way to test a half-stable system. Before |
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> they stable, they test the new packages (only) on an otherwise stable |
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> system, and before they ~arch, they test on at least the developer's |
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> machine that it works, but there's no real testing, and indeed, no |
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> practical way /to/ test because of the number of possibilities involved, |
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> on a system that's partly stable and partly unstable. With Gentoo, it's |
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> still an option the user has, but as they say, if it breaks, you get to |
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> keep the pieces, it's definitely a "beware, here be dragons!" option. |
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If by "half-stable" you meant people that installed 100 packages and 50 |
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of them are unstable, I'd agree with you, they're the ones getting the |
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most trouble. They can't be a stabilizer since their system is not |
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"stable" but neither are they a true cutting edge adopter. But I doubt |
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that there are many such people, most people that runs half-stable |
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system would only have at most ~10 unstable packages (or 50 unstable |
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unmasks but 40 of them are for packages that stabilizes last year). |
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> Of course, personally, I'm a dyed in the wool and unapologetic ~arch |
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> user, plus often various development overlays, unmasking various still |
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> hard-masked packages, etc. To me, stable is months to sometimes years |
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> out of date and stale. But I (sort of) understand folks who want stable, |
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> tho I honestly don't /quite/ comprehend why they're on Gentoo in that |
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> case, as it honestly seems to me a much slower cycling distribution like |
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> Debian stable or the various long term support enterprise distributions |
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> (Red Hat/CentOS, Novell, UbuntuLTS...) would be more appropriate if long- |
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> term stability is what they're after. |
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IMO Gentoo's edge was not about having the most cutting edge software |
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(pun not intended), but rather "having a choice". With Gentoo, you get |
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to choose which USE-flag to (not) include; you got to choose the kernel |
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options and also to use genkernel; then you've got a choice to run a |
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antiquated, full-stable, half-stable, ~arch, or overlay; you are free to |
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choose how antiquated or cutting edge you want your system to be. And |
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Gentoo's portage makes living the picky eater's life much easier than if |
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you have to compile packages and its dependencies manually to separate |
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the vegetables (or meats if you're a vegetarian; or pork if you're a |
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Muslim; or cows if you're a Hindi; or whatever taboo or personal |
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distrust you have). |
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For me, I run a mostly stable system and unmasks a few packages that I |
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used most frequently since those are the software that I have the time |
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to test thoroughly since I work with them all the time. I've been |
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running a python 3 overlay (very unstable at that time), but I'm not |
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willing to run a full ~arch since most of those software I don't use |
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often enough anyway. |
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