Re: [gentoo-dev] Opinion against /usr merge

[Walter Dnes]

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 08:06:41PM +0200, Jason A. Donenfeld wrote
> On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 5:35 PM, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org> wrote:
> >
> >   3. More support for mdev; e.g.  https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Mdev and
> > (still in beta) https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Mdev/Automount_USB  The
> > next challenge is "custom mdev rules", which should be do-able.
>
>
> Innnnnteresting. Can you talk more about the benefits of mdev in
> non-embedded systems? Why would I want to use this instead of udev
> (aside from the /usr dispute).

  The biggest benefit is that Gentoo wouldn't become a Redhat-based
distro.  You can compile Redhat (or Centos) from source with SRPM
packages if you wanted a Redhat-based build-from-source distro.  They
proclaim that udev will not require systemd for the time being.  But
given how cavalierly they broke 20 years of linux file hierarchy, I'm
skeptical of their promises of continued backwards compatability.  And
what else do they have coming down the pike?  What's next to get broken?

  Alpine Linux http://alpinelinux.org/ is busybox-based, so it can be
done.  A major problem for me is that it also uses uclibc.  It does do
X11, e.g. GNOME, XFCE, etc), but uclibc rules out my Nvidia card with
proprietary drivers.  I'm also a paying subscriber of NHL Gamecentre
Live, so I need proprietary Flash, which gets broken by uclibc.  I've
tried Nouveau and Gnash, and they are not ready for primetime.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>