Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Joshua Brindle <method@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: Fw: [gentoo-dev] where goes Gentoo?
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 04:15:47
Message-Id: 42A6710E.7070502@gentoo.org
In Reply to: Re: Fw: [gentoo-dev] where goes Gentoo? by "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky"
1 M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
2
3 >Matthew Marlowe wrote:
4 >
5 >
6 >
7 >>A clueful sysadmin with gentoo is a far superior arrangement
8 >>provided the rate of hardware installs isn't too much. For very large
9 >>environments with 100+ boxes, I'd definitly agree with you that
10 >>gentoo has a long way to go.
11 >>
12 >>
13 >>
14 >>
15 >Well ... as far as I'm concerned, "clueful sysadmin" == Gentoo Certified
16 >Engineer. That's something we *can* do -- start certifying people the
17 >same way Red Hat does.
18 >
19 >
20 >
21 not a good idea (though not a horrible one either). the problem is that
22 1) there is no target audience (ie, you won't make money from the
23 hobbiest gentoo users that know they are clueful) and very few
24 enterprises run gentoo (before anyone freaks out about this >1000 is
25 very very few). not a big enough audience to justify the cost.
26
27 We actually thought about this a long time ago, maybe a couple years. I
28 talked to one of the guys that worked on the LPI tests and they said
29 there were large costs >$10000 associated with getting the test ready
30 for even beta testing (psychometrics and such are very expensive) and
31 then whatever deals with the test facilities.
32
33 and what does it give us exactly?
34
35 and ultimately having a certification really means support..,
36
37 maybe in a few years when we have loads of cash and people willing to
38 put god aweful hours into making it happen..
39
40 Joshua
41
42 >For large environments with 100+ boxes, as long as they're all x86 and
43 >i686 or better, you could have a small-to-medium compile farm with
44 >/usr/portage/packages exported via NFS.
45 >
46 >
47 >
48 >>I think Gentoo shouldn't rule out providing some support and flexibility
49 >>for any need that a significant amount of its userbase is interested in.
50 >>And, I know there are a significant number of devs already who
51 >>have at least some interest in enterprise support do to conversations
52 >>I've had via IRC.
53 >>
54 >>I definitly don't expect that the entire gentoo community or dev base
55 >>should go substantially out of their way or change organizational structure
56 >>to facilitate enterprise capabilities. Just allow some startup biz that
57 >>eventually comes along to be able to provide a backported snapshot
58 >>based tree for their own customers.
59 >>
60 >>
61 >>
62 >>
63 >I think you underestimate the difficulty of running a successful
64 >"startup biz". I don't think Ubuntu would have gotten where they are if
65 >the founder hadn't been rich to start with.
66 >
67 >
68 >
69 >>>>Also I find it amusing when people say that Gentoo exists for the
70 >>>>users. I think that is wrong. Gentoo exists for the *developers*.
71 >>>>It's our playground, and it's the reason we use a live tree rather
72 >>>>than switching to an actually sane approach. The users are cool
73 >>>>because they point out bugs, help solve problems on bugzilla, suggest
74 >>>>enhancements, provide patches, and notify us of package updates.
75 >>>>Sometimes they become developers. But the truth is that Gentoo sees
76 >>>>improvement and maintenance in the areas that appeal to the
77 >>>>developers. And that is why Gentoo exists for the developers first,
78 >>>>the users second.
79 >>>>
80 >>>>
81 >>>>
82 >>>>
83 >>>>
84 >>Thats part of the reason that I'm a developer - because I like interacting
85 >>with the dev community here. But, the users have their own role and
86 >>the above could be taken the wrong way.
87 >>
88 >>
89 >>
90 >>
91 >Well ... as a user, I certainly didn't take it the wrong way.
92 >
93 >
94
95 --
96 gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list