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Chris Gianelloni posted <1123076347.31550.17.camel@×××××××××××××××××.net>, |
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excerpted below, on Wed, 03 Aug 2005 09:39:07 -0400: |
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|
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>> Administrating a Gentoo system takes time - much time, but ... |
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> |
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> This is something that I think most people forget. Running Gentoo makes |
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> you a Linux Systems Administrator. Sure, you're only being the |
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> administrator for your machine, which might only have one user, but you're |
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> the admin. With some of the other distributions, *they* are the admin, |
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> and you're just a user. They make assumptions for you and limit what you |
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> can and cannot do (without an enormous amount of work to bypass their |
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> limits). This is especially apparent in the many cases where users expect |
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> Gentoo to do everything for them, when it doesn't. |
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I've found myself emphasizing this same point a number of times. There |
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are general system users that don't care /what/ they are on. Those are |
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/just/ users. However, by definition, /Gentoo/ user == sysadmin, |
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full-stop (period, for those USians not familiar with international |
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English, "full-stop" seems to me to convey the idea better). You mention |
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the lack of limits, and Sven mentioned the time it takes, but my emphasis |
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tends to be on the responsibilities of the job. A good sysadmin invests |
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the time and energy necessary to keep a healthy system, known vuln and |
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exploit free, but more than that, "clean" and simple, because (s)he |
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realizes the consequences of a failure to do so. A good sysadmin knows a |
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fair amount about how their system works, in ordered to do that. A good |
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sysadmin enjoys the job, or finds other work. |
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|
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Gentoo makes being a good sysadmin easy. However, by the same token, |
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because it assumes that admin is in place, it tends to make being an |
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ordinary "user" on an admin-less Gentoo system very difficult. Those that |
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don't like being sysadmins, really should be looking at a distribution |
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that, as you said, really takes on much of the sysadmin duties as part of |
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the services provided by the distribution. The best Gentoo user, then, |
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because being a Gentoo user by definition means being a sysadmin, truly |
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enjoys both the responsibilities and privileges of system administration. |
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Again, if that's /not/ the case, one really should be reexamining their |
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choice of Gentoo, as it's really not the best fit distribution available |
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for those who'd really rather be doing something other than system |
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administration. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman in |
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http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html |
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-- |
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