Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Donnie Berkholz <dberkholz@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: deprecation of baselayout-1.x
Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:09:35
Message-Id: 20110701140852.GE1319@karle.mayo.edu
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: deprecation of baselayout-1.x by Nirbheek Chauhan
1 On 11:26 Fri 01 Jul , Nirbheek Chauhan wrote:
2 > Except for the fact that while you upgrade, you still have a usable
3 > system. Reinstallation means a massive time-sink during which your
4 > machine is completely unusable. This is not an option for a lot of
5 > people.
6 >
7 > If -user is regularly giving that kind of advice, I think you guys are
8 > making a huge mistake.
9 >
10 > I'm not going to support this kind of max-6-month-upgrade life cycle
11 > for Gentoo. We're effectively driving our users away to distros like
12 > Ubuntu that allow you to upgrade every LTS release instead of
13 > constantly or every 6 months.
14
15 In my experience, updates become massively difficult after about 6
16 months unless you have deep expertise in Gentoo. You run into blocker
17 after blocker after USE-flag problem after resolution failure and an
18 ongoing series of confusing messages with no apparent end in sight. We
19 may call it supported (and technically, we're right) but it isn't
20 realistically possible for most users.
21
22 After handing over administration of about 10 systems to someone else
23 with less experience in Gentoo, I still get called in about once every
24 couple of months to help every time one of these weird problems comes
25 up. I recommended upgrades to the new admin every 3 months, which is a
26 point where nearly everything still works cleanly.
27
28 --
29 Thanks,
30 Donnie
31
32 Donnie Berkholz
33 Sr. Developer, Gentoo Linux
34 Blog: http://dberkholz.com

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: deprecation of baselayout-1.x William Hubbs <williamh@g.o>